How Real Is God?
How real is God? I know He is real and I know you know He is real. But, how real is He to you and me personally?
Sometimes, because we get so absorbed in the mechanics of church and so caught up in our own little system, we can leave God out. Israel did that. Psalm 50 screams of this reoccurring problem. “Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.” (Ps. 50:7-8) The psalmist goes on to record how poorly Israel responded to everyday life. The nation had taken God for granted and actually turned to think they could supply Him. God said, “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” (V. 12)
We often get so caught up in our own little world that we begin to think that things belong to us. We say, “At our church we do so and so.” Whose church? Is it really ours or does it belong to Him? We speak in terms of “our life” as if it still belongs to us. The church is His. Our life is His. Our families are His. Our possessions are His. There is nothing attached to us that is not His. We think way too much of ourselves, as did Israel. “…you thought I was altogether like you,” God said. (V. 21b)
How do we make God real? It is really not all that difficult. It will not be done with another sermon or another prayer. Nor will it be done by building bigger buildings and adding huge programs. It will, however be done when His people recognize His activity in every phase of life. Instead of being concerned about having 500 in church on Sunday, our concern would turn to how the Spirit of God deals with leading our lives. Instead of worrying about how much money was taken in, we will learn to concentrate on the minute details of God’s working… those things that cannot be funded by man. Making God real will happen when His people talk to one another about what He has done or is doing in their lives with the same ease as we talk about the Saints game.
God is real! And, it is up to you and I to help His realness filter into the lives of each of our brothers and sisters… and then to those around us. Remember what Jesus said: “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself.”(John 12:32)