Suitcase God?

Why is it sometimes that when we start getting close to God, we start forming a proper relationship with him and ‘moving forward’, we can still wake up in the morning and decide to do things our own way? We say to ourselves ‘right, I've come this far with you, Lord, now I'm quite happy to stay here a while and do things my own way for a bit…’ and we pack him into a suitcase, ready to take out on such occasion as we might ‘need’ him. Thank God He will never fit in a suitcase. Thank God he never lets us pack him away and leave him in a corner to forget about… sooner or later he reminds us he's still there, looking out for us, and that our attempts to pack him away for a while and fit him into a box were pretty futile. I don't know the number of times I have tried to pack God away whenever it has not been ‘convenient’ for me to be challenged by him and I have just wanted to stay exactly where I am, thank you very much. How stubborn I am sometimes… 

Why are we so reluctant, on occasions, to let God have his way with us? For one thing, it can make us feel uncomfortable. It means getting out of our comfort zones and facing up to things that we don’t like about ourselves. Sometimes we just feel happy with where we are at the moment, not realising that God is constantly on the move, wanting us to move with him and go into deeper places of fellowship with him. Sometimes God does a ‘new thing’ which he wants us to be a part of, and we freak out a little because it goes against the rules and order that we've just got comfortable with… Sometimes we are just scared of what other people might think. After all, it wouldn't do to be seen being ‘Christian-y’, would it?

I have to admit, I struggle with this sometimes, but I know I'm not the only one. How many people in the history of the Bible either ran away from God (Jonah, ahem), tried to hide from him for a while, or got comfortable with where they were? God always knows where you are, what your struggles are, what your thoughts are, and never takes you out of your comfort zone without giving you the strength to go through with whatever he has planned!  Sometimes, when I have come to my senses and reminded myself of these things, I just have to have a laugh with my Father in heaven at how silly I was to think I could pack Him into a suitcase…!