"Blessed is the man that heareth me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting at the posts of my doors."
- Proverbs 8:34

Every morning my wife watches "Good Morning America" before she officially launches into the day.

I happened to walk into the living room a few days ago when she was watching it and Barbara Eden was a guest on the show.

Of course, that reminded me of the television show I used to watch as a child, "I Dream of Jeannie."  Eden starred in the series as a genie who could magically make wishes come true for her master, who was played by Larry Hagman.

Now, as I thought about that old television show, I remembered quite about the relationship between Eden and Hagman's characters.  Basically, here's how the two characters interacted...

...most of the time, Hagman's character didn't ask his genie for anything.  He didn't want to abuse the power he had to get his genie to do anything he wanted.

...when Hagman's character got into a bind he called upon his genie to get him out of trouble.  If a crisis came up he knew he could turn to genie to solve his problems.

...when Hagman's character didn't like how genie was interfering in his life, he put her in her bottle and put the cork in.  He simply wanted to do things his way and didn't want her to be able to influence his life in any way that was contrary to his plans.

Ouch.  That sounds waaaaay too familiar for many Christians, doesn't it?  If we're not careful, we often treat our Heavenly Father like He is some kind of genie in a bottle.

Most of the time, we kind of leave Him alone.  It's good to have Him there and we know He's available should we need Him, but we don't spend a great amount of time with Him.  Think I'm wrong?  Ask yourself how much time do you spend in prayer each day --- could any other relationship you have survive and grow if you spent the exact same amount of time in it?

Consider this:    Do you have an active, committed prayer relationship with the Father? Or, do you find yourself generally praying in times of trouble... when you need the Father to intervene and get you out of a jam?

And what about His influence upon your life?  How much of your life does He really control?  Is He Lord over your relationships, your finances, your decisions, your tongue, your pride, your attitudes and intentions?  Do you allow Him to instruct you in how to live each day of your life...or do you attempt to shut Him out in things you don't want to surrender to Him?  Kind of like putting Him in a bottle and putting the cork in.

God isn't a genie.  He isn't some magical being that we can use when we need Him and lock Him up when He's getting in the way of what we want to do with our lives.

God is a loving, merciful Father who longs to be an active part of every detail of who we are.  He cries out to each of us for more than just a fleeting moment of our day...He desires for an intimate, ever-growing love affair like that between a husband and a wife, or a mother and a child. 

Christian, where are you at in your relationship with Him today?  Have you been treating Him like a genie in a bottle? 

Or, is He Lord of all today?

Have a "Wonderful DAY in Christ,"
Jimmy D. Brown
\o/ Praise Jesus!