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Psalm 118:28 NLT

'You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you!'

There is an ocean of difference between saying, “You are God” and declaring, “You are my God.” Accepting and describing the attributes of God is most certainly to declare truths about him. Yet, the wonder of the incarnation is to be invited to discover that this indescribable, unknowable creator God of all is, in fact, my God. I think I partially understood that at my first introduction to him, but it took time to separate my needing to own him as my personal miracle-maker, from resting in the majesty of God.

Hope is born of such knowledge. For where else can I turn for the fulfilment of every appetite ever experienced, every dream carried within my heart, and every insecurity that obstructs my ability to flourish in everyday living? I have invested so much time and energy, foolishly it seems, in seeking to become the person I imagine I needed to become. I have served external criteria that I wrongly thought were measures of my self-improvement and ultimately my maturity. I’ve invested in pursuing material goals in a never-ending pursuit of personal affluence and safety.

If life boils down to just one acclamation, “You are my God”, then I have spent too much time rambling along the wrong pathways. So often convincing myself I’m on the narrow way, I realise to my cost that I am actually strolling one of the many broad roads that leads to destruction.

The pursuit of God is to jettison all of the baggage of success, prowess and power in exchange for the sure and certain hope that my God is Lord of all. If I ignore what appears insignificant in an attempt to take hold of what is seen as fashionably significant, I am likely to miss discovering my purpose in every way.

The demonstration of hope is the declaration of thanks to a God who I can know, not merely as a powerful deity, but one who is my God. My hope is in that reality, for everything else, while offering the promise of substance is, in fact, no more than an empty vessel.

QUESTION: What things are you hoping in, that will not ultimately last?

PRAYER: Lord of all hope, be my all in all.