Who's Your God?

I was standing in the 34th street subway station waiting for the F train on a Friday night. I looked up to avoid looking at the disgusting subway rats and saw a sticker on some pipes that said, “Who’s Your God?” I don’t know what message the sticker was trying to convey, but it got me thinking…Who is my God? Who or what am I serving?
Here in New York City, many people’s god is their job or career. It’s all about what they can do to get ahead, climb the corporate ladder, be successful, look smart. It doesn’t matter who they step on as they make their way to the top. All that matters is getting to the top. For others, image is their god. They buy expensive clothing, have plastic surgery to look good, work out excessively, diet when they don’t need to, and obsess about the way they look. Then there are the people who only care about money. They need more of it and will do anything to get it and show other people that they have it. Still others place ultimate value and importance on their relationships.
I just read a study of Romans 8:17: “Now then if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of Goad and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Is the all powerful, all loving God of the universe my god? If He is, my life should look so different than the lives of those around me. If my inheritance is in heaven and not on earth, why should I spend all of my time accumulating things and money here? If I’m trying to please God, why does it matter what others think of me?
Every week and most days, I’m reminded of how different I am from the people that surround me each day. It’s uncomfortable not to participate in office gossip. It’s uncomfortable when others curse and take God’s name in vain around me. It’s uncomfortable when others talk negatively about Christians and about so-called “religious” people. It’s uncomfortable to be the only sober person in a group. I often feel like an outsider and an outcast. Yet I know that I don’t really want to fit in with these people. It makes sense that I don’t fit in. And the unfortunate thing is that I never will fit in. I shouldn’t expect my life as a Christian to coast along easily with no road blocks. If the proof from my own life isn’t enough, all I have to do is open up my Bible and read about the lives of others whose “god” was the true God. Abraham had to leave his home trusting God’s promise. Noah was rejected by others as he built the Ark. Joseph was abandoned and jailed for doing the right thing. Moses turned his back on the riches of Egypt to wander in the desert and lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. Most of the disciples were beaten and killed for their faith. And the list goes on and on.
At the end of the study on Romans that I was reading were the following words of Charles H. Spurgeon: “Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world. Never count upon immutability in man: inconstancy you may reckon upon without fear of disappointment…Serve God with all your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have the less to regret. Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are. When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full, except in the Lord. Set small store by present rewards; be grateful for earnests by the way, but look for recompensing joy hereafter. Continue with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you. Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide. Between this and heaven there may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided for by our covenant Head. In nothing let us be turned aside from the path which the divine call has urged us to pursue. Come fair or come foul, the pulpit is our watch-tower, and the ministry our warfare; be it ours, when we cannot see the face of our God, to trust under the shadow of his wings.”
Who’s my God? The God that loves me so much that he sent his only Son to save me. The God who cannot stand wickedness and is all powerful. The God that is always with me no matter my circumstance. The God that has all wisdom and knowledge. The God that created the universe we live in. The God that is making all things new. The God that is preparing a place for me in heaven. The God that will one day come again to take me home.