As we study the Ten Plagues of Egypt at our Sunday gatherings, it’s good to remember that God wasn’t inflicting judgment just to prove a point to the Egyptians. He purposefully kept the Israelites around to watch, so they could learn that there is only one source of salvation and blessing: God himself.
That’s because even those of us who have been saved by God still keep looking for wholeness, justice, prosperity, and security in other places. Several theologians have called these “functional saviors.” They are the things we look to for tangible, everyday “salvation.”
In The Bookends of the Christian Life (available to read for free on Google Books), Jerry Bridges says a functional savior could be “television, family, friends, sleep, caffeine, partying, not partying. Eating, not eating. It could be career, fashion, investment accounts, approval of others, material possessions, peer status, good looks, recreation, spectator sports, having a clean house, or working out at the gym. It could be just about anything, including moderate living, asceticism, philanthropic giving, or even ministry.”
He offers twelve questions to help you figure out what your functional saviors are, so you can stop slavishly depending on them and trust Jesus instead:
I am preoccupied with ________.
If only ________, then I would be happy.
I get my sense of significance from ________.
I would protect and preserve ________ at any cost.
I fear losing ________.
The thing that gives me greatest pleasure is ________.
When I lose ________, I get angry, resentful, frustrated, anxious, or depressed.
For me, life depends on ________.
The thing I value more than anything in the world is ________.
When I daydream, my mind goes to________.
The best thing I can think of is ________.
The thing that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning is ________.