The God In Me

3/23/2011
The God In Me?

Y’all know this song? (Singing) "It's The God In Me" . . . I like it. The beat is kinda nice. You can hear this song on both secular and gospel radio stations. “It’s the God in me!” And I can’t front. I have declared that it is the favor of God on me when people compliment me or notice things about me that I know only God has blessed me with materially. But one of the problems that I have theologically with this song is that it is not balanced. And in this world where materialism rules, the church needs to provide the truth as it pertains to God and His relation to His people.
We can get caught up in the message of prosperity and miss the truth of who God is. By that I mean that God is not just shining in you or giving you favor when you have money or prestige or all these good things. God is with you all the time. We don’t hear songs about people being blessed when they have no money and are staring at an eviction notice. You don’t see a vanity plate on a hooptie driving down the street. But maybe we should. Maybe the next time you fall on hard times you should testify that God is in you, too! Not just when you come out of it. Because God is with us even when it doesn’t look like things are going our way. And it can be that God is even closer to you when you don’t have than when you do. It is in those times that we learn to trust Him more. When we see His hand of provision in a different way. When we can say that we truly do love God not for what He can do for us, but for who He is.
If God is only in me when I’m financially secure or when I have no worries, then how do you explain Job, Joseph, David, and even Jesus! All of them were in positions when it may seem like God had forsaken them, yet God also was with them in those times. Can we see God in people when it looks like they don’t have anything close to the American Dream? Can you look at a homeless person and see God in them? Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Can you see the God in someone who just lost their job? Can you see the God is someone who has failed at something? Can you see the God in yourself when you are in these positions? Or can we only see God when things look good? It probably wouldn’t sell a lot of record but it might give people who are in need of some encouragement the strength they need to keep going.
It is true that God gives good gifts to His children and takes pleasure in doing so. But I caution us all to keep ourselves from confusing the Kingdom of God with the American Dream. The two are not synonymous. God is in all of us at all times, not because of us, but because he promised to never leave us. If we only think that God is in us when we “deserve” to reflect His glory, then we would actually never have God with us. The only reason we are even called children of God has nothing to do with us. That price was paid long ago by a man named Jesus who reflected the Father’s love and glory even while hanging on a cross. The God in Him kept him nailed there in spite of what he could have done to get himself down. Can you see the God in that?