God on a Leash

There is a danger of seeing God as our servant who comes when we call Him and does what we want Him to. We can have this on a theological level, a God who we occasionally tip our hat to and helps us when we get into trouble. We can even believe He will make us rich with this world's goods if we just have enough faith. We can hold this on the philosophical level and believe in some form of unmoved mover, you starts the universe going and then leaves us to manage our own affairs. Or we can see God as a political God who supports our country or our political position. God is seen as (with apologize to C. S. Lewis) as a tame God, who serves our personal selfish ends.

I am convinced this is one of the reasons for the deplorable deeds done in the name of Christianity. People use God as simply a way to justify the things, even the nefarious things they already want to do. Evil generally justifies itself by doing things in the name of something people respect whether it is Christianity or liberty or helping the working man. That does not make any of these things bad. Now it needs to noted that the other main source of such deeds is the use of governmental power to force others to accept our beliefs. This is not limited to Christianity or "religion". The Communists applied it with atheism and proved themselves as bad or worse than any exponent of "religion". The solution to this is for all not to use violence to enforce  what they believe, whatever that belief is.And in the ultimate analysis the Christian must remember that a forced faith is not a genuine faith.

But could this limited concept of God is the real God? To ask this question is to answer it. Can we really believe that God, if there is a God and I am convinced there is, would conform to our whims. Can we expect Him to respect our limits and only do as much as we want Him to do. Is not such a God obviously a product of our own fantasy. And may we not be forced to accept God as He is rather then who we want Him to be. For that is the only God that can be real.