Either HE's GOD...or He's Not by Holly D. Sands

There's a phrase that's been sitting in my spirit this morning:

 Either HE's GOD, or He's not.

If He's God, He's God in all of it - the good, the bad, the easy and the hard. And if He's not God in the hard parts, then He's not really God at all; He's just a nice idea we keep around for when things are going our way.

We believe Him easily when things are easy.

It's not hard to trust God when the bills are paid and the kids are fine and the test results come back clear. Anybody can do that. Faith doesn't cost you anything in that season. Ah, but then something happens that has no natural explanation for how it gets fixed. The door doesn't open - in fact, it slammed shut in your face. The phone doesn't ring with good news - it may not even ring at all. The thing you prayed about gets worse instead of better. And that's where the real question shows up, the one that was always there the whole time: Do I actually believe He's who He says He is, or did I just believe in the outcomes He was giving me? 

Scripture doesn't dodge this.

Look at the three Hebrew men in Daniel 3. Nebuchadnezzar's got the furnace heated up seven times hotter, and he asks them straight out: who's the god who's going to deliver you out of my hand? Their answer is one of the most fearless responses in the whole Bible:

"If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)

Read that again. But if not. Death seemed imminent. Whether God chose to deliver them or not, He was still God, and they were still going to serve Him. That's the highest kind of trust there is because they weren't praising God for their desired outcome, they were praising Him because He is God.

Look at Job; he was a righteous man, yet he lost his kids, his wealth, and his health so quickly it made everyone's head spin. His wife even told him to curse God and die. And in the middle of extreme loss, with wife and friends being the ultimate discouragement, he said:

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:15)

That's not a man who understood what was happening. That's a man who knew Who he was dealing with, even when he couldn't make sense of what he was dealing with.

This is where it gets personal.

I've walked through seasons where my natural read of the situation was "This doesn't look like a good God is in charge of it...in fact, is there anyone at all in charge of anything going on here?!" And in those seasons I've had to make a decision that had nothing to do with my feelings and nothing to do with the circumstances actually changing yet. I've had to settle the questions: Is He still God? Is He still faithful? Is He still mighty enough to do something about this - even if He hasn't yet, even if He doesn't do it in the way and timeframe I'm asking?

If the answer is yes, then that has to hold regardless of the furnace I'm standing in. His character isn't up for renegotiation just because my situation got hard or even impossible. He doesn't stop being sovereign, faithful, and powerful the moment things stop making sense to me.

And if I only trust Him when it's easy to see why - that's not faith. 

And He's not distant while you're in it.

That's the other half of this that matters. Trusting He's God isn't trusting a God who's far off. 

Last night, before I went to bed, I opened to this Psalm:

"Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the grave, behold, You are there... If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall fall on me,' even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You." (Psalm 139:7-8, 11-12)

There's no version of "all hope is lost" that's actually outside His reach. Not the hospital room. Not the season you can't see your way out of. Not the place where you feel like you've prayed into a vast silence. David says even the darkness isn't dark to God - it's not a place He's absent from, it's a place He's already standing in, fully aware, before you even walked into it.

"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb... My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." (Psalm 139:13, 15)

That's intimate knowledge. The same God who's able to shut a lion's mouth or walk three men through fire without the smell of smoke on them is the same God who knew us before we had a name. That's who we're trusting when we say "but if not." 

So when it looks like all hope is lost

When the diagnosis doesn't change, when the prodigal doesn't come home yet, when the provision doesn't show up on your timetable, when you've prayed the same prayer for the hundredth time and heaven still looks quiet — the question standing in front of you is the same one asked of Christians of all ages:

Either HE's GOD, or He's not.

He's able. He's faithful. And whether the deliverance comes the way I want it, when I want it, or even if it does not come at all - I know who I'm serving.

"For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." (2 Timothy 1:12)

About the Author

Holly D. Sands has walked with Christ since 1983. She writes at He Is My Song, sharing encouragement and admonition from Scripture with women pursuing Him more deeply. She lives in South Carolina, where she and her husband, Shane Sands, are members of Poplar Springs Baptist Church. Shane's been called by God as an evangelist and leads United in Christ Jesus ministry. At home, they're joined by their idiot cat, Mister Bojangles, whose main contribution to the household is sleeping and eating treats.