There is a God. He is Creator, He is Almighty, and there is no other. God has always been; He always will be. Why not just agree with Him about that?

God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). God created humans and gave them two things that set them apart from animals: (1) an eternal soul, and (2) the ability to reason facts to a conclusion.

God gave us the Bible, which is His Word, His message to us. When we read the Bible, one of the things we see is failure; not God's failure but man's failure. Man's failure is always rooted in the resistance to agree with God.

God has some rules. One rule is that He is God and we are not. Another rule is that God elevates simple obedience to Him above everything else. The latter rule is made very clear in the message the prophet Samuel gave King Saul after Saul was given specific directions from God.

Saul had interspersed his own interpretation of the instructions and done things his way. Samuel said, "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22).

Many of us seem to prefer performance for God over obedience to God. In other words, we think if we work hard enough with a desire to please God, surely He will accept what we do even though it is not according to His directions.

Cain, the son of Adam, tried that in Genesis 4:3-5. God did not accept what Cain did, and Cain was so angry with God that he killed his brother. How much different that story might have been had Cain simply agreed with God.

Agreeing with God is called confession. Unfortunately, we limit the meaning of the word confession to an act of revealing our improper actions, but there is more. Confession is declaration.

God has made it perfectly clear who He is and what He wants. He is God. He wants us to believe Him and act with respect toward the fact that He is God. When we believe who God is, we take our place as listener, worshiper, and obedient servant.

God does not leave us alone in all of this. God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to live on the earth as the God-man-fully God and fully man. Jesus fulfilled the intent of God. He listened, He worshiped, and He obeyed.

Early in God's creation He gave Adam, the first man, a simple task. Adam did not confess God as supreme authority; he did his own thing, and as a result, he and all of us were plunged into estrangement from God.

When Jesus came, His mission was to fulfill all of God's righteousness and redeem us back to God. Jesus did that with His death on the cross. God validated Jesus by raising Him from the dead.

The stage is set. God is God. He is in control. He makes His way clear to us. We need to agree with Him. Confess that truly He is God, that we need Him in our lives, and then seek continually to follow after Him, doing His will according to His Word in every aspect of our lives.