TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2015.
IDOLATRY
IDOLATRY
The religious worship of idols.
You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. I Thessalonians 1:9b
And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3
Most people think of idols as a statue or figurine representing a god and idolatry as worshipping of an idol as god. But it goes much farther than that. The “things and people” in your life can become idols when they are more important to you than your relationship with Jesus, the living God. The majority of people in our world today have their personal idols, things and people that are more important to them then their relationship with God.
If you ask people if they believe in God most would tell you that they do. But if you ask the same person a follow up question, “What do you consider most important in your life?” Most would answer money, fame, power or pleasure and not God. To know and to follow God requires one to get rid of whatever gets in the way of worshipping Him.
We recently read about a youth pastor who asked a series of questions to some teenagers. He asked who they thought God was. One answered by saying that He is like a grandfather. He is there but I never really see Him. Another responded by saying He was an evil being who wants to punish me all the time.
Most people form their own gods in life. What consumes their time becomes their god. The more time we devote to what has become our god, the more it controls our thoughts and consumes our energy.
In the two verses we have put above, Paul and John remind us that when we have accepted Jesus as our Savior we have turned to God, the only true God, and away from the idols of life that have controlled us. Jesus Christ our Savior is the only true God because He is the one who created us, and the only one that provides us eternal life in heaven.
Idol worship has been prevalent down through the centuries. When the Israelites were in Egypt, the Egyptians had many gods and each god represented a different aspect of life. They worshipped many gods to get more blessings. Moses warned the Israelites to worship the only true God and not the god of Pharaoh, Akhenaten who pointed to the rising and setting sun as the great deity who gave life to earth. The sun was created by the only true God along with the moon, the stars and everything in this world. The sun has no power but to give light not life.
The first of the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses was: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
When Paul came to Athens he saw the many objects of worship. The Athenians built beautiful temples to their gods. Paul was grieved by all the idolatry he saw. The Athenians had the concept that there must be a higher power but did not know who or what. Paul used this uncertainty of God to point them to the one and only true God of scripture. In Acts 17:24-25 Paul wrote: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands and He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.”
Our Lord expects us, as believers in Him, to reach out to those who have chosen their own idols which they worship and through our words and deeds show them that there is only one God who is the God of creation and the God of salvation.
Our memory verse for this week is found in Ecclesiastes 10:10.
If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success.
Keep me from allowing anything to become more important in my life than You. Keep me away from the things and people that could become idols and would hinder my relationship with You. May I be steadfast in my faith and give me the desire to serve You.
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