You Are Not Him

You Are Not Him

I worked for an oil production company in New Orleans for 12 years. Somewhere in there (around year six) I was born again. Sometime after that I printed this on a piece of paper and hung it in my cubicle:

“There is a God…and you are NOT Him.”

(It was a huge hit (not) with my ex-fellow atheists.

People would read it and tell me, “You know, I know I’m not God.”

I’m writing this today because I am convinced that in a shallow sense most people know this but that

deep in their hearts they truly believe they ARE God.

Why do I say that? Well, if we aren’t God why do we constantly try to do things like:

-        Supply all our own needs

-        Try to make other people do the things we want them to do

-        Act as if our lives are our own

-        Do things and expect we will never suffer from them

-        Expect our timing to always be perfect (because we want things NOW)

-        Live as if we think we know all possible outcomes

-        Live as if we can do all things through our own strength

Why do we do these things?

Satan’s original temptation was to dangle out a possibility of being just like God:

“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:4-5)

Now, that was Eve and you and I are just people who showed up a LONG time after her time. Why is this pertinent to our lives?

Because ALL the things in the list above are things only God can do or be.

Satan knows about our flesh and even when we learn some things about flesh we STILL are susceptible to push the real God aside and try to be a “god” in our own lives.

I’m convinced many of us remain in situations which are hurtful or lacking because God loves us too much let us try to be a God replacement in our own lives.

“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…” (Exodus 20:4-5a)

A God replacement is a false god…an idol and worshiping any god other than the real God is blasphemy. Even if the god we worship is our own ability to try to meet our own needs on our own.

Even if we do these things while claiming Jesus as our Lord.

If we find ourselves manipulating others by lying, stealing, destroying precious relationships (with spouses, children, friends and associates), name-calling, character assassination and so on…let’s see these for what they are: forms of human sacrifices to the false god we worship.

Let’s see if for what it is: blasphemy and sorcery.

If the realization of that doesn’t break your heart…perhaps you don’t really belong to the Lord.

If it does…cry out to Him and repent. You’ll know you have truly repented when you not only stop these behaviors…but when you consider them and they seem so foreign to you that you instantly cast down the idea of doing them at all.

Let’s choose to worship God alone with our entire lifestyle. Let’s stop entertaining the devil and, instead, delight the Lord.

“Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the LORD, but the blameless in their ways are His delight.” (Proverb 11:20)

“There is a God…and you are NOT Him.”

Pastor Mike McInerney

Mike McInerney Ministries, Inc.

© November 16, 2024  

(for use with permission)