My Pet: God

We as humans love pets. They bring us comfort. They make us feel good. And above all they give us that token feeling of having something solely dependent upon us. A person once said this about pet dogs, “We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made.” People love coming home to something (or someone) that shows them love, comfort, and acceptance. Many people will actually find themselves confiding in their “pet(s)” their most intimate struggles and secrets. In other words: Pets (for the most part) make us feel good inside and usually give us comfort and acceptance when we cannot readily find it elsewhere.

But how many of us would take our pet dog, cat, budgie, or other animal to work in order to solicit advice from them? Or how many would ask advice from their parrot on relational difficulties? Or how about asking your horse for agriculture advice? This series of questions may bring a chuckle to us but how many times do we treat God the same way?
How often do we compartmentalize God into the areas of our lives where we think He is applicable? How many times do we treat God as the “pet?” We’ll only run to Him when we need comforting or an ego-boost. We throw Him a few treats (prayers, church attendance, etc.) and figure all is well and He’ll be there again when we need Him.
When it comes to real situations in business, relationships, politics, and health –we fail to ask for His advice or wisdom. We’ve relegated God to being our pet. That something or someone we come to for comforting – and then go back to our “real lives.”

Galations 6:7-8 says that, “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Many times we isolate the spiritual from the physical instead of realizing that sowing to the spiritual (i.e. pursuing God in all areas of our life) causes the physical to benefit as well.

Let’s be careful to not compartmentalize God to an area of our life which we run to only in times of trouble –but let us seek His wisdom and grace in every aspect of our lives and consequently bring glory to Him in all of our “business.” God is not anyone’s pet – but we unfortunately have a tendency to treat Him exactly that way. It’s time for us to realize who God really is and focus our entire life around Him.

Rev. Kevin Mills – Prairie Community Church