The world's view of God

“You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’? Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?” Isaiah 29:16
It really irks me hearing people say things like ‘God is just a figment of man’s imagination’, or ‘Santa Claus, God, the Tooth Fairy, whatever – they’re all imaginary friends’, or people calling God ‘sky-daddy’ or ‘the man upstairs who’s not really there’. As if these statements were not blasphemous enough, they are usually said with an air of pompous superiority. But God is not made up by people. He is the one who made people. He is the one who holds our lives in our hand and gives us the breath with which people curse Him.
Then there are people who accept the idea of the existence of God, but they have an erroneous view of Him. They think He is waiting with glee for them to mess up, so that He can smite them with a bolt of lightning or some such punishment. Or they think He doesn’t care, because after all they are just one of billions of people in the world and not very important in the grand scheme of things. They think that God has human attributes: that He gets jealous and throws tantrums if He doesn’t get His own way. But this could not be further from the truth. God created us and He loves us. He wants us to be with Him for all eternity, free from the power of sin – that’s why He sent His Son to earth to die in our place. God is not like us. He doesn’t seek revenge; He is just and fair and holy. He doesn’t have favourites; He loves us all. God is not like man, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can become like Him. God lives on a higher plane than us, and the amazing thing is that He has invited us to join Him.