Daily Devo - Tuesday, April 22, 2008

“…my God…”
Philemon 4a

Two words…
Five letters…
One clause…
…simple, perhaps even simplistic in its presentation, but nothing short of majestic in its vision.

Here we find a statement that serves as a potent confession of faith as well as a sweet comfort to that faith. It declares and then confirms, dictates and then aids, diagnosis and then heals. Other than the very name of Christ, there are perhaps no words that taste sweeter to the lips than the statement “my God”.

When Paul refers to God as “his”, he is making a bold declaration that echoes Old Testament language. Several times God promises that “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.”¹ The issue isn’t ownership, but rather relationship.² Paul is doing nothing less than publically declaring his everlasting and unbreakable relationship with the sovereign Lord of the universe—made possible only through Christ. It is this relationship that is the source of Paul’s faith, hope, and love. David exhibited the grandeur of this relationship with God when he sang “O Lord, my God, in you do I put my trust” (Psalm 7:1). Much later the Apostle Thomas, after placing his finger into Christ’s wounds, declared “Thou art my Lord and my God”. Though many claim to believe in “a god”, only those who come through Christ have the privilege of truly knowing him as a loving Father. William Jones, a puritan minister, writes “the Devil can say, God; and he trembles at it: but he cannot say, ‘my God’: this is proper [only] to the faithful”.³

When we truly come to understand that God is “our God”, a garden of comfort and peace is made available to us. Perhaps no biblical writer understood this God-given comfort better the David. At a low point in his life he writes, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”⁴ On another occasion, when he feared death was near, he offered these powerful words, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” ⁵ David is reminding us that when we come to grips that God is “ours”, neither life nor death can overwhelm us. No difficulty in life, nor even the shadow of death that will one day fall over us, can separate us from the love of God.

Praise God that he is my God.

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¹ Exodus 6:7; see also Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4; 30:22; Ezekiel 36:28.
² This isn’t to deny that God doesn’t in a real sense “own” us. We are his children, his subjects, and his possessions. Yet we are also his ‘friends’ who boldly have the right to approach his throne.
³ William Jones. A Commentary Upon the Epistles of Saint Paul to Philemon, and to the Hebrews: Together with a Compendious Explication of the Second and Third Epistles of Saint John (London, 1635).
⁴ Psalm 27:1
⁵ Psalm 23:4