Do you treat God like a cell phone? I thought of this when I was at the bank once and the man standing behind me obviously wanted everyone to hear his cell phone conversation. He had his Bluetooth ear piece on and talked so loud that his voice echoed in the lobby area. Even when he ended the call, he kept the earpiece in giving the impression that he was still in the middle of a call. He reminded me of how some of us display external signs that we are communicating with God (bible on our work desks, scriptures on our computers) when we really aren’t talking to him at all through prayer and devotion.
Another way we treat God like a cell phone is answering his call but when we realize it’s God, making up an excuse to end the call. That’s usually once you realize that His call is about living with integrity and submitted to His will. Even though I can say I’ve been blessed by my obedience to God, there have also been times I made all kinds of excuses when it was something I just didn’t want to do.
Also, like we put our phones on silent, we do the same thing to God. We keep his voice on “silent or vibrate” because we are busy doing something that being obedient would disrupt. In these instances, you may be the only that knows there is a “call” and can easily ignore it.
Similarly, being in a bad cell phone reception area, you try to continue communicating with God but because you stray as a result of sin or other subtle compromises, it’s hard to hear him clearly. Some of us like using being in a bad area as anexcuse for missing a call that we really didn’t want to answer in the first place.
Cell phone technology advances all the time and I think we sometimes forget the original purpose of the phone: to communicate with others. However, many people walk with their heads down engrossed in their cell phones ignoring where they are going and the people around them. We get so caught up using the latest piece of cell phone technology and forget that it’s designed to bring us closer to others, not push us away.
I think that sometimes we treat our relationship with God like a cell phone with a similar mixture of impatience and casual convenience. We are happy when he gives us what we want but get impatient for him to answer that next prayer. Deuteronomy 5:24 says, “And you said, ’The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.’” We want to control how and when we hear from God but forget that the best thing is just being able to hear his voice.
Restored Blog with Pastor Will Cain 