God is a gentleman

In my books, I like to write about gentlemen. Men who are honorable and noble and who do the right thing. But how often do we think of God as a gentleman? Depending on your background, you may picture him as either a gruff father type who's always chastising you for wrong doings, or you may think of Him as a big Santa Claus lovable type. Either way you'd be wrong. For years I thought of God as distant and unloving and judgmental. I couldn't have been further from the truth. But just because He is willing to forgive us, doesn't mean He is a soft wimpy pushover either. It's up to you to discover who God really is and the only way to do that is (like any relationship) by spending time in His Word and with Him.

One thing I have learned is God is a gentleman. The definition of a gentleman is a civilized, educated, sensitive, or well-mannered man. He never forces himself on anybody and the minute He senses that He is not welcome, He leaves. You may have heard this sort of thing before, but recently I've come to realize another aspect that really impacted me.
And that is that each person controls how much God is involved in our lives. You don't want God, He won't bother you. You seek Him with all your heart, you get all of Him.
You only want enough of God in your life to not cramp your style, then you get exactly that much God in your life.  

This last statement scares me a bit because honestly, I wonder if there aren't moments when I get too caught up in my own life and sort of push God off to the side.  

• Moments when you're with some people who aren't Christians and you sort of change the way you talk and say things to exclude any mention of God. 
• Or the times when you really really really want a particular thing that God has said no to, but you go ahead and get it anyway. 
• Or you really want to get involved in a certain relationship and you rush headfirst into it without consulting God because you're afraid He'll say no.
• Or when you're just too busy to pray and too busy to read the Bible and you relegate God to Sunday mornings at church.  
• Or maybe you just want enough of God to get into Heaven, but living for Him day to day is just too hard.

Whatever the reason, when we do these things, God says, Okay. I'll step back. I'll withdraw my loving hand. And He gives us what we want, only a small part of Him. And then we wonder why our life gets so messed up and we get hurt or head down the wrong path and get into all sorts of trouble. And we wonder why we don't feel the presence of God, why miracles aren't happening in our lives and our prayers aren't being answered.  

If that's you right now, take a moment and see if you haven't wanted only a small part of God in your life. Because that's exactly what you'll get. And believe me, you'll be missing out on SO MUCH! I don't say that because I'm always seeking all of God, because I fall short many times, but I'm saying that because the times I have sought God with all of my heart and given Him complete control are the times when great things have happened in my life, sweet moments and fantastic miracles! Whatever God has done for you, He has so much more planned. Don't push Him away. Because He's a gentleman and He will grant you your wish.