Running a Game on the Store

SOME people participate in a scam. Due to a major event, such as a banquet or ceremony, they will go to a store and buy a dress, suit, or shoes to wear. They will adorn themselves with this outfit for the event, only to go back to the store the next day and return it! They never intend to buy these things to own them; they only want to use the goods for their own purposes and then give them back.

Where the store intends to make legitimate sales to legitimate customers, the customers in this situation actually have an entirely different plan in mind. They are running a game on the establishment. Many of us are attempting to run a game on God. We come to the store—the church—and say what we want and what we are committed to.

We make declarations regarding what we want. We take for our own purposes what we want from the establishment, only to tell God later that we can’t use it and don’t want it anymore. We tell God that we want Him and that we are here for His purposes, and then at our convenience we live for our own fulfillment and purposes.

That is running a game on God. The difference is, with God, we can’t run a game. He has the ability to search the heart.