“Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.” Psalm 105:2-3

Have you ever visited a national park, like Yellowstone, or Glacier National Park? There are signs all over these parks telling people not to feed the animals, not to pet the animals, and not to try to take pictures with the animals. I know the danger of trying to get between a mother Moose and her calf – apparently a lot of people do not.

Some of the animals get so accustomed to being fed by the visitors (even though we are not to feed the animals) that they starve to death – they “forget” how to forage for their own food.

Ever wish you could get a few spiritual handouts from G-d? A lot of us are like those animals in the parks when it comes to walking with Jesus. We’d like to have everything handed to us, straight from G-d—no questions asked. We keep looking for those divine snacks of His direct involvement in our lives – that is if we are not too busy on our phones and other devices to realize G-d is active in our lives. Let me tell you, we need to be aware of G-d’s “active” presence in our lives because those special moments can be fleeting. When G-d is reaching directly into our lives, we need to be aware, thankful, and in awe.

Too many people view G-d like they do their Senator or Congresswoman. It is true, we are more apt to vote for someone when they have “actively” done something that directly affects our community, our church, our business or our development. Of course, these elected officials do a lot of good (and of course can do a lot of evil) that has nothing to do with us directly. That does not mean that they are not being active, or doing a lot of good. The same is true with our relationship with G-d – it can be tempting to measure the quality of our relationship with G-d by the frequency and intensity of divine interventions. But this leaves us prone to the “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?” attitude. When G-d doesn’t live up to our expectations, we get bogged down in discouragement, doubt, and even spiritual dysfunctional.

This is what makes some of the stories from the Bible hard to read. For example, when Abraham and Sarah were too old to have a baby, G-d intervened and did something really spectacular. Later, when G-d told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, G-d showed up in a miraculous way and spared Isaac’s life. So, it’s easy to wonder why G-d is not as liberal with giveaways in our lives as with Abraham. But before you think Abraham had an edge, remember that the recorded interventions of G-d with Abraham averaged about one every 15 years! Just imagine being Abraham and going 15 years with no word from G-d.

That is why we need to be on the look out for those G-d moments – because they are few and far between. G-d wants a relationship with us; wants us to love G-d without an expectation that we will receive some divine “handout” like our dog expects when we shake his hand.

It would be a major distortion of our view of Christianity to see G-d as our sugar daddy, ready to jump every time we thought we needed a handout. I sometimes wonder if heaven has a sign that says, “Don’t feed the Christians!” with the fine print reading, “They’ll think it’s all about the goodies”!

Have you ever tried to relate with someone who has the “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately” attitude? How did it affect your relationship? How does this attitude affect a person’s relationship with God?

Are you hungry for a demonstration of God’s power? Read Job 38–41. How does this passage satisfy your desire?

Pastor Dave