June 26, 2008

Worshipping God yet Serving Idols…

Jonah 2:8-9 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.”

I have had some very hard days lately… I have had to make a stand for my Lord and Savior in a way I never thought I would have to. It has been excruciatingly hard, for some do not understand why I have to be obedient to His Word and to my decision to follow Christ, no matter what… and I never thought I would be in this position. However, I am, and I have chosen to follow my Lord and Savior, to be obedient to His Word, and to cling and hold tightly to Him.

This situation has also led me to examine myself, to lay my heart and life open on the altar before the Lord; so He can reveal to me what in my life is not pleasing to Him. I desire for Him to open my eyes to the things in my life that He longs to remove and replace with Himself…

The Lord is speaking one basic theme to me through just about everything I read and hear. When this happens the Lord gets your attention and you sit up and listen. He is speaking to me about other gods, or idols, in my life. Yes, I worship and love the Lord, but all too often it is the “idols” in my life that I serve rather than Him. I worship Him, but am I serving Him as much as I worship Him. He is beginning to reveal to me the “idols” in my life that I allow to take the place of Him in my heart.

You see, I don’t just want to say that I follow God, and I do not just want to follow Him some of the time, or just be obedient to a portion of His Word. I want to follow Him all the way, no compromises, and no apologies. The recent struggles in my life have led me to look deep into my heart, to examine my desires, my motives, and my attitudes in light of God’s Word. I am asking God to open my eyes to any “idols” in my life.

Notice in this passage of scripture below, how Amaziah serves God, but not wholeheartedly. Immediately after God gives him the victory in battle against the Edomites, he brings back the foreign gods, sets them up as his own, bows down to them, and sacrifices to them. Immediately after God’s hand works in his life!


2 Chronicles 25:1-14

“Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in
Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Jehoaddin; she was from
Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.
After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king. Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sins.”

Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered those twenty years old or more and found that there were three hundred thousand men ready for military service, able to handlethe spear and shield. He also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents of silver.

But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the people of Ephraim. Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.”

Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?” The man of God replied, “The Lord can give you much more than that.” So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from
Ephraim and sent them home. They were furious with Judah and left for home in a
great rage.

Amaziah then marshaled his strength and led his army to the Valley of Salt, where he killed ten thousand men of Seir. The army of Judah also captured ten thousand men alive, took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces. Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had sent back and had not allowed to take part in the war raided Judean towns from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed three thousand people and carried off great quantities of plunder.

When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them.”

That just amazes me, that immediately after God moves and provides for Him and the people of Judah, he turns and serves other gods. But how often do you and I do the same thing? God works in our lives, we are pleased with how He has provided and answered our prayers, and then we just turn back to the things of this world rather than drawing closer to our Lord. In essence we are taking the presence and power of God in our lives for granted! How dare we take for granted the God of this universe… He is a holy God, and is worthy of all the praise, honor, and glory we can give; yet how quickly we turn away and give our time, energy, and yes, praise and glory to the things of this world.

My prayer is that God would open my eyes and would allow me to see myself as He seems me. That He would give me a burning desire to run from the things of this world that distract me from Him, and to run wholeheartedly toward Him. That I would be so in love with my Lord, and so in awe of Him that the things of this world would pale in comparison and would lose all power to lure me away.

What about you? Are you worshipping our Lord but serving “idols”?

Ask God to open your eyes and reveal to you any idols in your life that are preventing you from serving Him wholeheartedly. Determine to do away with them, and run wholeheartedly to our Lord and Savior, and allow Him to give you a heart that longs to wholeheartedly serve Him.

Holding On,
Tricia