In our country’s 246-year history, 46 men have served as president. Many have been deemed great leaders of our country due to their respective policies leading to economic, domestic or foreign successes. Our country was founded upon the freedom to serve and worship the one true God. We have been kept free, however, only by the grace of my God and irrespective of the party in control, their religious background, political ideology, or morals.
The world has its own ideas and characteristics for its god. Some serve Buddha, Mohammed, Mary, or another deity. Their god changes with the times, and any limitations are excused by the negligent acts of man. Their god has varying degrees of goodness and the means of peace. The gods of the world have an understanding and acceptance with man. The world has “gods” with names affixed on the titles of ownership, use as means of recreation, or even their participation in leisure activities. They are gods because they take time away from the Heavenly Father and thus hinder a relationship with Him. My God, however, is the one written about in the inerrant and infallible divinely inspired scriptures. I can proclaim Him as “my God” because He lives and abides within the believer.
He has been called Jehovah-Jireh, as our provider, Jehovah-Shalom, as our peace, Jehovah-Yasha, as our Savior, and Jehovah-Nissi. These are just a few names referring to and exalting the name of Jesus Christ. To David, He was the psalmist psalm, to Moses He was the “cleft in the rock,” and to Joshua, He was the “captain of the Lord’s army.” To us in the church age who have salvation through Jesus Christ, He is “my God” and my blessed hope.
As Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Thus, within our Savior can be found the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. He was “before all things, and by him all things consist” and it pleased the Heavenly Father “that in him should all fullness dwell.” Thus, if we want to know who God is, we must know His son Jesus Christ. We are given an enlightenment of His glory through the Holy Ghost not fully afforded to man prior to Pentecost. The prophet Isaiah, however, had a great understanding of this great deliverer to come. He was to be the wonderful counselor and the prince of peace. My God indwells His people through the manifestation and power of the Holy Ghost. Thus, the worship of my God is not contained within a building or dependent upon a person. Here are 7 ways we can proclaim Him as God:
1. He Is My Creator and Strength
He knew me before my conception, and thus, He is able and shall provide all my many needs. When the winds of travail come against me, my God shall be my refuge as the prophet David declared in many of his psalms. Isaiah proclaimed at 49:5, “And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORDand my God has been my strength.”
The knowledge that God was the creator of man and earth is fundamental to our proclamation that He is the one true holy and righteous God. Rightfully, David in Psalms 18:1, sang, “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength” following his deliverance “from the hand of all his enemies.”
2. He Is My Restoration
In the book of Ruth, Naomi and her husband left Israel for the land of Moab during a time of famine. There, she lost her husband and both sons. Ruth, one of her two daughters-in-law, stuck by her on the return to Bethlehem. Ruth was a Moabite and regarded as unworthy and unable to “enter into the congregation of the Lord” as written in Deuteronomy 23:3. In Ruth 1:16, she forsook Moab and its gods to proclaim, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
Just as Boaz later became the kinsman for Ruth, my God provided a kinsman for my redemption through His son. When we were lost and dominated by sin, our soul merely existed in state of spiritual famine and destitution. We strayed to Moab in search of sustenance and riches, only to find out true restoration was provided by my God.
3. He Is My Peace and My Rest
We will never experience world peace until after the return of Christ. My God, however, promises an internal peace and rest for the believer despite the external afflictions and turmoil. We are concerned for the state of our world, but we are not dependent upon it for our own peace and prosperity. In Hebrews 4:3, the writer in referring to Psalm 95, tells us, “for we which have believed do enter into rest.”
R. Albert Mohler Jr., in his book “Christ-Centered Exposition Exalting Jesus In Hebrews,” wrote that “only one thing can satisfy the restlessness of the human soul – the ‘rest’ of God. And the only way we can access God’s rest is by faith in Jesus Christ.” Thus, His way and His path are the means to finding this desired “rest.” Jeremiah at 6:16 wrote, “This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” The peaceful paths outlined by My God have been tested and tried since creation. My witness is the proclamation as to the faithfulness of my God in His provision for peace and rest.
4. He Is My Righteousness
Jonah at 2:6, wrote, “To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit.” My righteousness is not attributed to my title within the church, my water immersion, or my goodness to neighbors, but solely through the righteousness attached by the Heavenly Father to His son. “And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). When the ruler of this world brings forth accusations about me, I can plead nothing but the righteousness provision by my God.
5. He Is My Protection and My Deliverer
As David was pursued and encompassed about by his enemies and Saul, he wrote in 2 Samuel 22:7 that “in my distress I called upon the Lord and cried to my God: and he did her my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.” My deliverer is not dependent upon my access to a cellular transmission to 911, the best medical facilities, or even the most caring of families. My God is my deliverer as He is always on His post as my watchman and at the ready on the throne in heaven. His office is providential, and His authority is omnipresent.
6. He Is My Inheritance
Joshua obeyed the direction of God and Moses to go and spy out the land despite the chagrin of the people. When looking back at the Lord’s faithfulness in his life in Joshua 14:9, Joshua stood and “wholly followed the Lord my God.” Moses, in response to Joshua’s obedience, declared that “The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.” My inheritance is not in land mass which will pass down upon my death or any worldly possessions. My inheritance is by and through my Savior Jesus Christ.
7. He Is My Guide
The moral compass of society or the norms legislated at our state capitol or Washington, DC is not our ultimate guide. Our guide is God. Isaiah wrote at 25:1, “LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” David in Psalm 119:105 testified that “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Not only does my God outline the path, but He continually guides me. Spurgeon considered these provisions to be “practical benefits” meaning each are needed and useful in our everyday life. His Word confounds the world in its blindness but is readily understood by the believer through the light of the Holy Ghost.
