Who or what is your God?

I believe there is one Holy God who created the universe. One God who with a word said, "Let there be light," and there was light. I also find it difficult to keep our Mighty Creator at the forefront as the only god of my life. Our lives present us with opportunities to be very easily distracted by things that are much less Holy than God. In our culture, we have the internet at our finger tips that helps to fill longing desires of loneliness or lust. We turn to our spouses, friends, or kids to fill the aching void but expect perfection that we can't get from imperfect humans.

I'm looking at 1 Chronicles 16 as a reference that expresses the mightiness of God in comparison to the gods that we humans look to as a replacement for the Almighty.

25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and he is to be held in awe above all gods.


26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.


27 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy are in his place.

Idols are things we worship, meaning our time is consumed with admiring or exalting the thing that seems to dominate our heart and mind. So to expose our idols we can ask, what do we look to keep us happy and fulfilled?

Its a hard thing to admit but I know there are times when my husband is an idol of my life. And some would say that's okay, but I know its not. Its simply not fair to my spouse to hold him at such a high regard to fill my every need and desire while expecting perfection. I am married to an amazing man but he's still a man, he's human. "For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods (vs. 25)." God is worthy of awe and praise over any earthly thing or being. Even those we hold dearest to our hearts are not superior to the greatness that God deserves.

Psalm 96:5 states, "For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols." Think of what consumes your mind in a day on top of those we love. We hunger and thirst for perishable food or we anticipate the coming episode of our favorite TV show to be entertained. Our minds are consumed by things that are not worthy of our praise.

My husband has posed these questions (adapted from John Piper) in a recent sermon that I think are appropriate for this post when thinking about "What is your God?"

• Is there something I could have in Heaven that could make me happy forever if Jesus wasn’t there?
• Or is there something here on earth that if I found out wouldn’t be in heaven would I still want to go there?

These questions help to expose our idolatry, or our love for something more than God.  When we leave this world and are in the presence of our Almighty Creator we will see in full circle what 1 Chronicles is claiming in verse 27, "Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place."  Our eartly idols cannot give us the splendor, majesty, strength or joy that is found only in our eternal King.  My prayer is that God exposes our idols and changes our hearts to be fully satisfied in Him alone.  All glory and praise to God our Father who radiates strength and joy from his heavenly throne!