What God do YOU believe in?

Opinion polls tell us that 92% of Americans believe in God.  But what God do they believe in?  Today, the God people believe in is looking less and less like the one true God.  The God of today is like a Hollywood star of a do-it-yourself gospel.  The generation of today no longer believes in a deity who could actually mess with our lives, rearrange our priorities, and force us to deal with the concept of sin.  Our generation chooses instead to meet its spiritual needs by shopping for a faith.  We want a faith that takes parts of Christianity and mixes it with Scientology, Buddhism, and personal experiences.  Although an overwhelming number of Americans continue to say that they believe in God, their concept of God is as varied as the items you will find in a shopping mall.  Postmodernism (which is what we are living in today) says that the whole idea of God is social.  Postmodernism tells that you have to decide for yourself what or who God is, and that there are no absolute truths.  What is most disturbing is that Postmodernism exists in some churches today.  The grand vision of God given to us in Scripture has, to a great extent, been lost.  What we have in its place is an emphasis on "felt needs" and "health and wealth."  Many churchgoers define God from a popular culture rather than Scripture.  They don't reject Christianity altogether, but they change it to fit in with today's "feel good" religion.  Those of us who DO believe in the one true God have become like the person who has fallen asleep after eating a big meal and won't allow ourselves to wake up to answer the phone.  If the Christian church could be aroused to heed the voice of God, then it's quite possible that our sleeping culture might rouse itself and take a second look at its moral and spiritual lifestyle.  But it must begin with individuals like ourselves who are willing to return to the God of the Scriptures.  We can't be duped into the thought that there is a good God in heaven, so we don't need to be concerned with such things as sin, hell and redemption.

Let God be God

The apostle Peter instructed Christians "not to return evil for evil or slander for slander" (1 Peter 3:9).  That was Jesus' attitude. He was able to do that because He "committed Himself to Him who judges righteously" (2:23). The word translated as "committed" means "to hand over for someone to keep."  Every time Jesus went through a suffering circumstance, He handed Himself and the circumstance over to God.  That's because He was confident in the judgment of God and that the glory would therefore be God's.  It was because of that confidence that Jesus was able to accept suffering calmly.

That is the way you and I should respond when we are being persecuted at work, in our families, or in other relationships.  When we try to retaliate, we are forfeiting the blessing and the reward that the suffering is meant to bring.  Retaliation shows that we don't have the confidence we ought to have in God's ability to make things right in His own time.  And, by the way, that also includes punishing the unjust and rewarding those who are faithful in suffering.  So give it over to God and let HIM handle it.  Let God be God.