He hasn’t just created you and me as animals or robots to serve Him. He created us in His image, to be loved by Him, to love Him, and to have personal relationship with you.

God loves you personally, and intimately. He cares for you.

He crafted you from birth - before birth, in your mother’s womb.

He doesn’t want anyone to hurt you.

He cherishes you.

He doesn’t want you to be anyone’s doormat.

He wants you to be His own, His son, His daughter, a son or daughter of the King.

He created you in His image.

He didn’t create you as a slave, or even as a servant, but as a friend.

He desires communication with you, He desires for you to get to know Him personally, because He loves you.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

He has plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

He has life-giving wisdom for your life, not because He’s controlling, but because He knows how He made you,

Just like a carmaker prescribes 10W-40 oil for your car for the first 100,000 miles, then a higher viscosity oil after 100,000, it’s not because they want to control you. It’s because they created the car with a certain metal that gets hot when you run it, and that viscosity of oil is the ideal viscosity for the metal to not wear down faster.

God is the same way as the carmaker. He knows what He made you with, and He knows your personality runs hot when you:

Work too hard

Try to fix other people too much

Take care of everyone else except yourself

Get triggered because people let you down

Get triggered because people say things that hurt you

In those and many other situations, your particular “model” runs hot. And what makes you run hot is different than what makes your friend or spouse or parent run hot. What makes me run hot is different than what makes you run hot.

But God knows that you need 10W-10 weight oil and I need full - synthetic 100,000 mile oil because I’m not changing my oil on time!!

And he loves me enough to help me learn over time to slow down, take breaks, get healthy time for myself . . . and then maybe I can switch to another oil.

He loves you enough to help you learn over time to . . . take time for yourself . . . take time for Him . . . not work too much . . . not work too little . . . not be bitter . . . love more . . . whatever it is.