God is beyond awesome

In case you don't know, God is beyond awesome. It's not even possible to describe how awesome God is.

As far is God is concerned, the people who always do what's right in his sight have it pretty well off, to put it lightly.

But, for the rest of us, well, I know for me personally, sometimes I find myself pleading with God. I want God to remember me--I want in on God's love and salvation.

God shouldn't even pay any attention to us, right? If sin is rebellion against God, what chance do I have, being that I've sinned way too often? The fact is, I /know/ I'm a sinner.

Let me tell you a story.

Once, some people forgot about all God had done for them.

But God saved them anyways. It gave him an excuse to show off a little.

Here's what God did, to be specific.

Because of all these huge miracles, the people believed in God and sang lots of praises.

[Dramatic Music.] But, they forgot what God did again, and they failed to wait for God to help them discern what to do.

They started nagging God because they were hungry and they wanted to see how God would respond. They weren't that dissimilar from a three-year-old testing Daddy to see what he can get that Mommy might not let him have.

God gave them what they asked for, but he also sent a pretty nasty sickness through the population for nagging so much.

Then, the people became jealous of Moses and Aaron because they got to talk to God directly.

Thus, there was an earthquake and all those haters got torched.

Later, they thought they could trade God--who at the time was presenting himself to them as a pillar of fire the size of a skyscraper--for a stupid replica of a cow. All cows do is eat grass.

It goes without saying they'd pretty much forgotten about God's awesomeness.

Naturally, God was pissed. Fortunately however, Moses was able to step in and cool his temper.

After everything they'd done, and that God had done for them, do you know these people had the audacity not to believe God would keep his promise?

God couldn't let them off easy this time.

They ended up serving false gods, and had it not been for a dude named Phinehas, they would've been wiped out by a plague.

For like the umpteenth time, they rebelled against God. They did everything from human sacrifice to prostitution in the name of religion. That's some sketchy stuff right there.

Fed up, God handed them over to their enemies.

God tried to save them lots of times but they were bent on rebellion and wasted away in their sin.

Even so, God noticed how sucky their situation was. That's actually one of God's strong points, actually. God is watching in all our struggles and sticky spots to see what we'll do.

You know, the parallels between the story I just illustrated for you and our own lives are fascinating. We all forget what God has already done for us, but when life's going smoothly, we're perfectly happy believing in and praising God. But, we always forget again, and we don't seek God's counsel as often as we should. There are times we want to see if God can do it at all, and while we're waiting, we nag God incessantly. Then, when we encounter someone who is on a spiritual high, it's so easy to be jealous of them because it's like God certainly provided for their needs but what about us? Sometimes, we are convinced we don't need God, or we simply lose faith and latch onto worldly things. Every time something new happens in our lives, we question where God is taking us and then when we get there, we're back to praising God. It's a never-ending cycle of belief and doubt, obedience and rebellion, rinsing and repeating. After fending for ourselves for so long, we begin wasting away beneath our daily headaches and heartbreaks. Life, it's just too hard a game to play on our own.

Remember at the end of the story, when I said God watches us to see what we do when suffering from the crud in our lives? We've got two options, only one of which brings God into the picture. Are we going to praise God in our thoughts, actions, and behavior, or are we going to work it out on our own?