if God were a place holder in our algebraic imaginations

setting aside the unknown allows you to get on with grasping the subject

The 'people of the Book' all worship the God of Abraham, who before their meeting is described as chief among the gods, also named YHWH. But each brings different linquistic, historical and geographical particulars to their vision and relationship to God and each other. Having heard many passages of the Bible read and preached more than once, and having grown accustomed or complacent in the regularity of the liturgical year, at some moments my hearing of the message jumps off the tracks and then it all seems a bit hollow or has the sense of trying too hard to force the world view to work in each person's circumstances and changing times we inhabit. For example, instead of freely resonating with the praise and preaching of God's goodness; of doing as did Jesus when reaching out in response to strangers, this morning the possibility of God being a signifier or place holder entered my mind. Suppose it is the weekly declaration of our love of God that makes it so, not any sort of external flow of reality. In other words, you can 'fake it until you make it' by living a righteous life, forgiving sin and asking one's owns sins against others to be forgiven. By pressing forward as if the Kingdom already has come, then indeed something that looks and feels of the Kingdom does indeed take shape; at least in one's own heart and responsiveness to others.
       Perhaps this is overthinking; after all, mere mortals can dance verbal or analytical circles around scripture, but the full and true meaning will always be bigger than we can wrap our minds around. But there does seem to be something in the observation that we see one thing, but mistake for another. We call the beginning of the church worship service an invocation, as if some external force is hailed. In fact the work of calming the restless mind for a moment, of opening one's heart, and of paying attention to one another all takes place in one's self; not an external invocation but an internal one. Likewise, we look far away for God's will, but if the God notion is instead a place holder, then it is rather for us to look inward for that will of goodness and hunger for mercy, love, and righteousness. This string of reasoning seems to hold together from Protestant context and custom of discussing, but I wonder if the same wondering can take place from a Muslim or Jewish point of view.