God Is No Genie

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Luke 6:46

It's funny how we expect God to be there for us...without our being there for Him. How unfair and selfish is that? We expect God to be at out beck and call when we need Him, but we don't want to do the things He asks us to do. We want to live for us...and we want Him to live for us, too. Sometimes it's as if God is, in our minds, a magic genie that we pull out of His bottle when we want something, then put back on the shelf when we're done. And we feel like we're doing Him a favor for letting Him out! Who exactly do we think we are? God loves us and wants to do things for us; but He deserves to have us do some things for Him, too, does He not? After all, He already gave us the life we have, the things we have, and died to redeem us to boot. He deserves a little something out of the deal, I'd say. When people take for granted and treat the people in their lives--family, friends, co-workers, employees--with such disregard, we consider them selfish jerks. Why is it different when we treat God the same way?