United Church of Christ Daily Devotional 17th July 2025 Thursday Message
What Do We Mean by “God”?
By Matt Laney
[Jesus said,] “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21 (NRSV)
People toss around the word “God” like we’re all talking about the same thing. Spoiler alert: we’re not. Ask three people what they mean by “God,” and you’ll get five different answers. Even atheists and theists argue past each other because they haven’t defined their terms.
Imagine someone saying, “I don’t believe in art. Art doesn’t exist!” You’d blink and point to a painting, a ballet, a haunting melody. And they’d reply, “That’s just pigment on canvas. Only bodies moving. Mere vibrations colliding with eardrums.”
If by “art” they mean some floating, invisible force with a paintbrush, well of course they won’t believe in it.
But what if we defined art as “the experience of meaning through human expression”? Suddenly, we’ve got something to talk about.
Let’s try a similar approach with God. Here’s one working definition: God is your ultimate concern (thank you, Paul Tillich), your highest good, your deepest loyalty, the thing you’d rearrange your life around, perhaps die for. That might be a divine being, sure. It could also be success, love, control, comfort, or the stock market.
Everyone has a god. The question isn’t “Do you believe in God?” but “What’s your God?” What sits on the throne of your heart? What do you love most fiercely? That’s what shapes and guides your life.
You may not believe in ‘God,’ but you’re definitely serving one.
Prayer
Holy One, help me name what I truly worship and redirect my heart toward what is truly worthy.
About the AuthorMatt Laney is co-Pastor of Virginia Highland Church UCC in Atlanta, GA and the author of Pride Wars, a fantasy series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Young Readers. The first two books, The Spinner Prince and The Four Guardians are available now.