Is God in Your Pocket?

Like a genie in a lamp, many people try to put God in their pocket, pulling him out when they need something, and putting him back when they don't.

When I was a child, a friend had a rabbit’s foot that I thought was pretty cool. The rabbit’s original fur was some shade of white, but the foot had been died a garish green color and then had a small chain attached to it. I don’t remember what I traded for it. Probably a baloney sandwich or something like that. Baloney was a good trading commodity back in those days.

I remember my friend telling me that it was “lucky.” Rumor had it, if you stroked the rabbit’s foot in just such a way, you could make a wish and it would come true. Of course, this was nonsense, and certainly anti-Christian nonsense as well.

But how often do humans fall into the same pattern?

Photo by Katerina Niuman on Unsplash

Later, in school, I learned about the stories of the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. If you think about it, genies in lamps are just a Middle Eastern analog to my garish green rabbit’s foot. You have this object, the lamp, that you can put in your pocket and pull it out and make a wish when you need something done. Sure, there’s a genie involved this time, but the principle is the same: power to shape reality to your will, on demand.

As far as Christianity is concerned, this is nothing new. Ever since Adam and Eve ate the apple in the garden, we’ve been on a mission to bring power to ourselves. We want power that serves our interests. We want power that works on our behalf according to our instructions. We want power that is subject to our will.

Consequently, we treat God a bit like that rabbit’s foot or the genie in the lamp. When we want something, we pull God out of our pocket and we throw out a prayer.

But God doesn’t play our game. He knows that we’re fair-weather Christians. He knows that we’ve been ignoring him for weeks, months, and years, that we don’t have any real relationship with him.

And we know it, too.

And so, we plead. “God,” we say, “Just this one time, let this lottery ticket pay off!”

Then, we bargain. “If you help me get this promotion, I won’t skip church for the rest of the year.” As if God really thinks that your skipping church is the primary problem. To be clear, there is a problem, but simple attendance isn’t it. That’s merely a symptom of a much larger issue with your heart and your understanding of how God’s Kingdom works.

Regardless of the outcome, whether we get the promotion or the lottery riches, we put God back into our pocket until next time. We wouldn’t want to lose Him because he’s the power that we’ll need next time.

The mature Christian realizes that God will not be manipulated. What God wants is a relationship with his creation, with God taking his proper role as the creator and sustainer of all things. The creation serves the creator, not the other way around.

Now, surely, God does want to bless us and give us good gifts. The Bible says so multiple times (see James 1:17, Luke 11:13, and Romans 8:32, among many others).

But the gifts that God wants to give may not be the ones that we want for ourselves. God knows what will happen to your life if that lottery ticket pays off. It probably won’t be good. And regardless, God won’t be manipulated into giving something to you. He’s simply not a genie in a lamp, waiting in your pocket for you to make a wish.

Rather, He wants a relationship with you and He has a mission for you. If you engage with him on those terms, His terms, then you’ll be amazed at the blessings that will come your way, true blessings that will deliver the satisfying life that you’ve always yearned for.

Today’s Prayer

Holy Father, creator and sustainer of all things, we worship you as the only sovereign power. We know that you desire to know us and to make yourself known to us. Help us to focus our time and attention toward strengthening that relationship with you. We know that you delight in giving us good gifts and we look forward to whatever you have in store for us. Help us to understand that you cannot be manipulated our bought, and forgive us for our feeble attempts to do so in the past. We long for your Kingdom. Help us to find our place within it and the satisfaction that finding that place will bring. Forgive us this day our sins and help us to forgive others. In the name of your Son, Amen.

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