Who Carries Your Bags?

I got this in my daily email from Insight for Leaders:

Pastoral Ministry: God is Not a Railway Porter

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven
with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed
the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
--Isaiah 40:12

We must be concerned with the person and character of God, not the
promises. Through promises we learn what God has willed to us, we
learn what we may claim as our heritage, we learn how we should pray.
But faith itself must rest on the character of God.

Is this difficult to see? Why are we not stressing this in our
evangelical circles? Why are we afraid to declare that people in our
churches must come to know God Himself? Why do we not tell them that
they must get beyond the point of making God a lifeboat for their
rescue or a ladder to get them out of a burning building? How can we
help our people get over the idea that God exists just to help run
their businesses or fly their airplanes?

God is not a railway porter who carries your suitcase and serves you.
God is God. He made heaven and earth. He holds the world in His hand.
He measures the dust of the earth in the balance. He spreads the sky
out like a mantle. He is the great God Almighty. He is not your
servant. He is your Father, and you are His child. He sits in heaven,
and you are on the earth. Faith Beyond Reason, 44.

"God, I fall on my face before You in worship this morning. Forgive
me for those times I have treated You as though You were my servant,
somehow expected to meet my demands. I am Your servant, Lord, and I
humbly bow before You today. Amen."

How often do we make God into some sort of cosmic Santa Claus? It's so easy to present the gospel so it's all about us. It's just natural to do things that way. But Christ came to do so much more than sell fire insurance. He came to glorify His Father in heaven. And that's why He sets us free. Yes, we can and should enjoy the abundance that comes from saving grace, but let's not fall in love with the gifts and lose sight of the giver.

I wonder how my wife would feel if I stopped loving her if she didn't get me exactly what I wanted for Christmas? Actually, I don't have to wonder too much about that one...

I hope everyone who reads this joins me in that prayer listed above. I didn't write it, but I sure do agree with it!