I have noticed I only pray when I need something. It feels like I am treating God as customer service. How do I change that?

“And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”

Israel had just made the golden calf. God offers to send them on to the promised land with an angel to guarantee success, but without his presence going with them. Moses turns the offer down. He would rather stay in the desert with God than arrive at the destination without him. It is the sharpest line in the Old Testament between wanting what God gives and wanting God.

“Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.”

The day after feeding five thousand people, Jesus meets the crowd who tracked him round the lake and tells them plainly why they came: not because of what the miracle showed them, but because they had eaten. He does not send them away over it. He names the transaction out loud, then redirects them toward food that lasts, and keeps talking to them.