Relationship or 911 system

This seems to be a question that so many people ask on a regular basis, even many who do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior. When bad things happen, many times the natural thing to do is blame God. Ask where has he been, why did he allow those things to happen. The other side of this question can come from God. I wonder if God thinks life this: "Where are my people when things are going so great in their lives? The only time that they come to me is if they need something. It seems that they care nothing for me but want me to fulfill their to do list daily. All they ever want is to receive but they never want to give anything up for me. Then when things do begin to happen in their lives here they come running to me again. This might be the first time they have talked with me in weeks, months, or days but now they are in trouble and need someone to bail them out."
What is so amazing is that so many times God our Father in heaven does help us out and provides for us. Think if you had someone that the only time they ever called you was because they wanted something from you. When the phone would ring, you see their name and think, what do they want from me now. Would it be any different with God? We are to have a relationship with him, he is not our 911 system that we call on just when we need something.
Following Christ is about a relationship and it is about having faith in someone that we cannot see or fully prove scientifically but neither can we prove the Big Bang Theory yet people believe in that. Sometimes our faith is tested by God, by our enemy (Satan) or we tend to make a mess of things ourselves many times.
There have been a lot of things happening in our church and last week I set in my office and tears began to well up because I knew all of the people that were hurting and here I was going to preach on Sunday about Surrendering to God. On Friday I thought I had nothing to give after giving so much to our people that needed us as their pastors. The Spirit spoke to me the following passage: 2 Corinthians 12:9. Paul is talking about how he has a thron in his side that will not go away (some thought his sight going bad) whatever it was God decided to not take it from Paul. Here's what Jesus said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I was weak this weekend but God's power through the Holy Spirit made it possible for people to surrender so many things to Him from their lives (new followers of Christ) to jobs, marriages etc. It was a weekend service I will never forget. There are circumstances that I still do not understand that went on this past week, but I do know this: God's grace is sufficient for anything that goes on in our lives. However, to understand his grace and love for us you must have a thriving relationship with God and not a 911 system mentality.