Genie [God] in a Bottle

People talk about putting God in a box, bag or backpack so that you can pull Him out when you need Him but have the option to stash Him away when you feel like doing something questionable or when you just don't want Him around. I grew up viewing God as a genie, stored away in a bottle until the time I would rub the bottle to make my wish. 

Please God I really want to win the lottery. God, could you make that girl like me. And sometimes when we are truly desperate we resort to bargaining with God. Dear God I know I haven't talked to you much but if you help me get this job I promise to give you more of my time or God if you do this for me I will start praying/tithing/reading you word more.

The specifics do not really matter, the general idea is the same throughout; God is being used as a genie, there to grant our wishes [prayers] but set or cast aside until there is something that we need or want. When did we start viewing the creator God; the maker of the heavens and the earth; the one who sacrificed His only Son to save us and restore our relationship with Him, when did we turn God into a magical being that we store in a bottle to be summoned when we wanted Him? 

It's not that God doesn't want to answer or prayers and meet or needs but He wants a relationship with us. His desire is that we consume Him and we let Him live through us. We bring nothing to God, we come empty handed and broken and it is His desire to give us life. There is no bargaining with God, He has already offered us everything, we have nothing to bargain with. From God, through God and to God is everything. Even if we think we have God confined to a bottle, box or compartment He is not. God is everywhere and it is an illusion if we believe we can confine Him. But God has given us the choice to allow Him into our life and to live through us. 

It is time we break the bottle that we have created in our minds and fully surrender to God. Once we do that God will work through us to fulfill His will and we will have the privilege of being used by almighty God. We may not win the lottery, be financially blessed or have our worldly desires fulfilled but we will have life and that life will be abundant and more amazing then we could ever imagine. So join with me and break God out of the compartments that we think we have put Him in and let Him have all of us.