Saturday, October 2, 2010

Are you customizing your God?

Even in these tough economic times, we can get anything we want just about any way we want it.

We pick out the color and options for our cars, create internet radio stations that play only the music we like, and cover our wounds with bandages bearing our favorite cartoon characters. Our pillows and mattresses are made of memory foam that recalls our shape in order to make us more comfortable. 

We have become accustomed to customizing just about everything. It's no small wonder we try to customize our God.

Relativism  - the idea that there is no absolute truth - has become firmly entrenched in our culture. This is contrary to scripture. In John 14:6. Jesus clearly states, " "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Yet, many Americans will say there are many paths to God and that people should choose the path that is right for them. We feel we have the right to be accepted just the way we are and we will shop around until we find the church or the religion which presents a god that permits us to be who we are. After all, we have a right to be this way and, well, God made us this way, right?

Some people confuse a church's lack of acceptance of them with God's lack of acceptance of them. Others have tried to be "Christian" by their own power and found they just couldn't be good enough. They customize His attributes to their liking or shop for a new sect or new religion that tells them they don't have to change. What they are really doing is trying to make a god in their own image - or change God instead of letting Him change them.

When we think this way, we are doing God and ourselves a big disservice.  God does love and accept us just as we are -- but He also wants to change us. He wants to make us more like Him.

That can happen when we allow God to change us - by His power. When we do this, we allow God to work out His perfect plan for our lives.

So what do you think is better, customizing your god or letting God customize you?