Words of Hope: One God
Sometimes we think we are God. We act like we alone know what He wants and others need to listen to us.
What we find in the cruelest of crimes is not a feeling of unworthiness but a feeling of superiority, a desire to be God. My will over your will.
In marriage it is not my attitude of godlike confidence that connects me closer to my beloved but our mutual submission and humility that lays the foundation for genuine love and sacrifice to emerge.
What becomes so innately dangerous is when I claim I am an heir of God, and you are not.
How do we address the wickedness done in the attitude and action of living as if we are God by claiming God for ourselves over others?
What deep harms have we committed in the name of God, touting God’s will while crushing and abusing others? How much suffering has been done by making myself superior or godlike? My will be done!
I recently read the harrowing and painful book, A Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft. It details the horrors and abuses of slavery perpetrated in the “Christian” south. It serves as a testimony of damnation for people who bought, sold, raped, traumatized, severely abused human beings and promulgated this abuse by claiming people who were slaves were not fully human but “chattel and property.”
It’s easy to get angry about horrible Christians and then miss what I do in my life that usurps God’s place. When I humbly consider this, I see that I love to be right. I love to judge other people. I can be self-righteous in my righteous indignation and make my assumptions about life the “truth.” I can be demanding in what I think my husband or my children should do. I can get bent out of shape if they want to do something else. I am tempted to claim God’s will to get my way.
But only God is the creator of all. There is only one God, and I am not Him.
To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. – Deuteronomy 4:35
