Does God Believe In...Me?

Um....no.

After returning from dropping my son and daughter off at their respective schools, I happened to turn the car radio to K-LOVE, and was treated to a lilting little song about how good the girl feels knowing that God believes in her.

Believes in her? The Bible I read says that apart from Christ I can do nothing; that all my righteousness (which is the only attribute I have that carries any real importance to God) is like filthy rags; and that in my sins I was completely unprofitable to God. Now I don't want to be too persnickety. so maybe "believes in me" should be taken as a slang way of saying "Christ loves me, so I can be comforted and at peace", or "The heavenly Father sees the good work He's going to work in my life, so I won't be discouraged", or something along that line. But that's the Lord believing in Himself and His own plan and power, seems like.

So the song sounds more like a few bits of Christianity mixed up together with the idea of a coach patting a discouraged young athlete on the back and saying to her, "Don't give up, kid; I believe in your potential." The question I would ask the girl singer is, what is it exactly that the Lord is "believing"? Is He feeling confident in you because of the potential you have? Or is He confident about you, because of the abilities He has? If it's the latter, then His confidence is actually in Himself -- and you are the happy beneficiary of His abilities.

K-LOVE is so schizophrenic. What would the count be, if you noted every song they play in which the singer's feelings, thoughts, actions, and importance to God are the focus of the lyrics? But then you'll get the occasional praise-song, with someone singing "I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I made it [worship], cause it's all about You..." But so much CCM is written, not just for humanistic, self-obssessed teens, but from the philosophical framework of a humanistic, self-obssessed teen. Which is a big reason why I lost all interest in CCM a long time ago. I became an adult, spiritually and not just physically, so I'm bored by CCM.

At least it wasn't that wretched Nicole Nordeman "I'm filled with doubts about God, so naturally I will disparage theological knowledge" song about how God can't be defined by clear propositions (I Really Want To Know You), as if it's possible to "know" God without factual content about God entering your head, for your faith to bite its teeth into...