During our COVID-19 shutdown, Pastor Zekveld plans to provide a personal reflection from Tuesday through Friday.
My God
I heard a meditation today on Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” I was immediately struck by how Paul referred to God as “My God.”
What a beautiful way to speak of God!
1. It expresses love and devotion for God; it is a term of endearment. “God, you are mine. My God.” This is how David expresses his love for God in Psalm 18. He keeps calling Him “Mine.” I love You, O Lord, my strength…my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock…my shield…my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1-2)
This is the God who has done so much for me. He loved me when I was lost in my sin, sent His Son to rescue me from the pit of destruction, and lifted me high on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. This is my God!
2. It shows belonging. When you believe in Jesus Christ, He brings you to God. God becomes your Father, and you, His child. You belong to Him by covenant. He says, “I am your God; you are my people.” He has embraced you as His dearly loved friend and committed Himself to you in an everlasting relationship.
3. It shows trust and dependence. Paul is commending his God who supplied all his needs to the Philippian Christians as their God who will supply all their needs. He is my God in whom I trust. (Psalm 91:2)
After he survived a night in a den of hungry lions, Daniel said to the Persian King Darius, “My God sent his angel and shut the lion‘s mouths and they have not harmed me.” (Daniel 6.22)
4. It shows a personal relationship with God through personally experienced mercies. A Christian does not just know about God. He knows God through personal experience of God’s grace, protection, patience, power, and kindness. God has come to Paul through Jesus and forgiven all his many sins, accepted and adopted him as His child, strengthened him in every task, and stood with him through every trial. This is my God!
How important at all times, and also at such a time as this, to know God as “my God.“ As much as I like to think that we’re coming out of the COVID woods and can soon leave this thing behind, I know that it is far from true. It is a tornado cutting a wide swath of trouble through our lives and livelihood, our work and worship, our fellowship and freedom. It demands so much of our energy, attention and time. It creates so much fear, blame-shifting and political conflict. It blinds us with endless facts and figures from experts. It hurts churches and missions, and places heavy financial strain on Christian organizations.
It is a consuming cultural and global crisis.
I know there are blessings in it too. The Lord is working out His glorious purposes. He is destroying our idols. He is summoning the world to bow before Him and be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. He is calling us to account for our arrogance: spitting in His face, defying His laws, killing millions of unborn babies every year around the world, and all the while thinking that God does not see or know, and, if He does, He has no right to invade our space.
Well, He has invaded our space! Because this is His space. He calls us to honor Him and give Him thanks.
But the most blessed and wonderful thing for us at this time is to know Him as my God. In the midst of all the turmoil that surrounds me, I have God. And God is infinitely more than all that is around me. He is infinitely greater than all the troubles of this world, infinitely richer than all the wealth of this world, infinitely wiser than all the wisdom of this world, and infinitely more loving than any love in this world.
To know Him is eternal life!
Do you know this God? Can you say of Him, “My God?” Do you love Him? Do you trust Him?
He is not an idea. He is a Personal, Living, Divine Being. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)