Treating God Like a Slot Machine or a Loving Giver

I get amused at how absurd some of the material for my daily posts comes to me. Case in point: There are three casinos that I pass along the way from Frisco to Tulsa. When I passed them as I drove home on Saturday, I thought about how people go to a casino to “invest” in a game or slot machine in hopes to receive a big payout from their "investment". A casino really does represent hope and great expectation for the folks who go there. I know, from those we counseled over the years, that many people play the games with money they really don’t have to spend, but still hope that they will hit “the big one” that will pay off some debts or help them make ends meet.

In the 80s, we attended a business convention in Las Vegas. One of our goals, while there, was to see Wayne Newton in concert and we did. We had a great time as Wayne was at his finest! When the concert was over we walked into the open air casino, Slots of Fun, that was across the street from our hotel. We were newbies to Las Vegas and to slot machines. I thought about the potential of a BIG WIN! Our kids played arcade games to win tickets to earn a prize, so maybe I could win some nickles. My husband was roaming around when I sat down and put a few nickels in the machine and within minutes I hit the “big one” and nickels were clinking out of that machine like crazy! I was "loaded" with a bucket full of nickels. I was so elated when I found my husband and shouted “I won!” He burst out laughing when he saw me because my face and hands were so dirty from handling those nickles that I had played and won. I saw how addictive "investing" into those machines could become -- not to mention I had to get "cleaned up" from my fun.

Passing those casinos as I drove home, vividly brought that memory back to me, but more importantly came the idea for today's post.

How often do we treat God like a slot machine? Instead of acknowledging Him and coming to Him daily for WHO He is, we come to Him for what we can get out of Him. We often come to Him for the “big payout” -- to take care of the big need or want we have. He is a casual acquaintance until we have a crisis or other need of some kind, then we show up with our nickels (i.e., our needs and wants) and put them into our “God” machine and we expect Him to come through for us. And, when we don’t get the answer we expect….we walk away and blame it on the "machine".

The fact is, our Father God is a wonderful bestower of blessings to us – from the breath we breathe, to the food we eat. When we acknowledge Him as our Lord when we pray, we are expressing our dependence on Him for all things! It’s one of the blessings we can have in a relationship with God -- to be invited to talk to Him in prayer and ask Him for things, and to know that He cares about us and listens to us. It’s even greater to know that He answers our prayers according to HIS good purposes, because sometimes the things we ask for aren’t even what’s best for us.

Prayer is far more than just asking God for things. It’s being in a loving relationship, where we talk to each other -- about everything. We talk then we listen and He talks back to us. We're not just trying to get something out of Him.
We are enjoying just being together in relationship.

Still, we are told to ask God about anything big or small – Philippians 4:4-6 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." When we pray like that, we are asking for God’s priorities in our lives instead of our priorities. We can be assured that God knows what we need before we even ask it, and He is committed to our best interests even when it might not seem like it at the time. Ultimately He most wants for us to know Him, to love and trust Him, and spend time with Him as Father God – after all – no slot machine could bestow on us the riches, treasures and blessings of our God – in Whom all things are possible.