Joel Osteen was already doing pretty well even before he became one of Oprah Winfrey’s favorite preachers. After all, he is the pastor of the largest church in America, which has an average Sunday attendance of 43,500. But when Oprah decided to include Osteen in her “Life Class” a couple of years ago, his fame and reach rose to a whole different level. Oprah fell in love with Osteen’s preaching when she encountered a sermon he gave called “The Power of I Am.”
Students of Scripture, familiar with Exodus 3:14, might assume that such a sermon would be focused on the power of God, but in fact the I Am that Osteen has in mind is not YHWH but us. “When you wake up in the morning, don’t focus on all your flaws,” says Osteen. “Instead, look in the mirror and dare to say “I am beautiful, I am young, I am vibrant, I am confident, I am secure.”” According to Osteen, the words we use to talk about ourselves have power to shape how we actually are. Therefore, rather than focusing on God’s Word, we should focus on our own words, seeking to mold ourselves through the power of positive thinking into the kind of happy, successful people that God wants us to be.
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