The God We Want

There’s a beautiful song by Casting Crowns called ‘Somewhere in the Middle‘ that is one of my longtime favorites by them. In this song is this line:

With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle

While listening to this song in the week, the meaning behind the words in bold -the God we want and the God who is – really stuck out to me. There is an incredible depth in those words that harks all the way back to Moses at the burning bush. It drove home something important that I need to accept if I want to live a successful and blessed life. I need to pursue the God who is – not the God I want. Let me explain.

When Moses is standing before the burning bush (Ex 3:15), he asks the Lord what is His name, to which God responds with, “I AM THAT I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE” or “I AM WHO I AM”. It’s a statement of existence. He is beyond everything. He is the essence of existence. Nothing can be without Him. He IS.

This forms the foundation for the line in the song. There is a God who IS. He exists. He will be who He will be. Then there is the second element: ourselves and our conceptions of God. We have images of who we want God to be. We want Him to be at our beck and call. We want a God of love. Perhaps not of judgement though. We want the God who fixes everything, not a God who can but doesn’t. We want the God who answers our prayers with yes, not no. We have an image of the God we want in our minds, but is that the God who is?

The inherent danger of having a different picture of God in our minds than that of the God who is is that such a misconception can have severe consequences. If the God you want will not cast the unholy into hellfire, what will happen in reality if the God who is will?

A misalignment of your impression vs reality will not harm reality. It will harm you. Hidden in God’s revelation to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”, is the idea that God is who He is. Not what you imagine Him to be. The most important thing you can do in life is explore and discover God – rediscover God. Come to learn about Him for who He is, not what you want Him to be. May the God we want be the God who is.