Mr. God?

When you’re in a relationship long enough, you can look back at it and kind of track its progression through various stages. In an ideal romantic relationship, couples tend to experience different types of attraction – physical, emotional, spiritual. Titles come with that too – girlfriend, wife, lover, mother of your children, friend. I was recently reminded that we approach God with titles too – healer, savior, refuge, father, friend, et cetera – but I was also challenged to consider what titles I have especially approached God with. I came up with a few – Savior, Lord, Father, Friend, Master, and Employer – in that order.

Coming to Christ, it’s easy to be grateful and remember He’s the One who saved you from your sins. This gratefulness leads you to address Him as “Lord” and afford him the loving respect and obedience He deserves. As I obeyed Him, I realized He is not just a Savior and wise Lord, but a loving Father who can be trusted. So I listened with gratefulness and joy to hear what my Father would say. Then I learned He could be my Friend – that I could dialogue back and forth with Him about any and everything.

Then somehow it went wrong.

Being involved with God to that extent, you get excited, you want to be more and more involved. Unfortunately, that can translate into more and more DOING – which invariably leads to burnout. So I started resenting God, forgetting God the Father and Friend, only seeing the Taskmaster who would not give me a break. This even clouded my vision of God the Savior. And when you forget where you’ve been saved from, you forget that your obedience TO God doesn’t do anything FOR God. He doesn’t NEED me, I’m not His employee, helping Him out for payments of His favor.

But the thing is, He wants our love. Out of a heart filled with true love for God will flow everything He wants from us – it is not the other way around. How do you refer to God? Who do you see Him as? And what does that mean for the way you relate to Him?

(Contributed by Chris Coultas)