And yet so much of contemporary religion is focused on God’s gifts rather than on God. We use God as a means of building or repairing our families; we use him as a sex therapist; he is our political advisor and our financial planner. From God’s hand we seek family, sex, power, and wealth—but do we actually want God himself? We shouldn’t be surprised to find that when we fixate on what we can attain from God, we fail to experience the peace of his presence in our lives.
