What do you worship, We all Worship something!
Why do some folks enjoyed hearing about God’s grace and have no qualms about some of His teachings, but they usually get upset when they realized Jesus asked for everything.
When they’d see those passages about Jesus telling people to give up everything, say goodbye to all they know, they’d get upset.
How dare He. Who does He think He is?
They’d always freak out because they thought Jesus had no right to ask for everything from them. To put their whole lives, desires, and passions at His feet.
I don’t understand why they get mad at Jesus for that. Jesus isn’t the only one who asks for everything.
In fact, everything asks for everything. Did you ever think of that?
Everything asks for your life. For your all. For every last drop of your allegiance.
Power does. Sexual fulfillment does. Athletics do. Your significant other does. Your job does. Jesus isn’t unique in that way. But He is unique in that He gave up everything first. All those other things use fear and false promises and force us to get what they want.
Jesus is the only one who lays His life down for you first, before He asks for yours. There’s no force. His love is so great that it compels us to lay down our lives in return. That’s the only appropriate response when we understand just how great His sacrifice was for us.
Their idols are silver and gold, / the work of human hands. / They have mouths, but do not speak. — Psalm 115:4-5
God even makes the point that when we cry out to idols, they can’t save us. They’re dead. The paradox of an idol, unlike Jesus, is that the worshiper gives it power. We are the ones who give it life. Alcohol can only be a god if we make it one. Money can only be a god if we worship it.
But Jesus is King and Lord regardless of what we do. He’s someone worth giving my life to. Some of us instead still settle for idols, even though we don’t realize it. We laugh at the imagery of the Old Testament as if we are more enlightened and would never do anything so foolish. Yet nothing has changed, except for the clothes the idols wear. When is the last time that bottle of alcohol really satisfied? When’s the last time it forgave you? Gave you joy? Fully loved you? It can’t. We crafted it with our own hands. What a lot of people don’t realize is that an idol can be anything. It can be good things like relationships or work. The problem is, even good things can become “god” things. God is against idols because when the pieces of life are in their proper places, we can enjoy Him and those things best. When we make another person an idol, we end up squeezing the life out of them. Only one person has the ability to sustain being God, and that’s Jesus. When we worship Jesus, we can love that person even more because our center isn’t tied to or defined by them. If they upset us, rather than affecting us negatively every time, we can give back love, grace, and forgiveness because our self-worth comes from God.
God is constant. Always forgiving. Always loving. Never changing.
One of the biggest traits of an idol is that we are blinded to it. It seems normal to us.
That’s the allure and power of an idol — we usually don’t know we have one unless it gets attacked or taken away. The easiest way to find an idol is to poke it. If it’s an idol, it’ll show its teeth. It’ll bark back. They always do.
Jesus doesn’t need defending. He never defended Himself but gave Himself as an offering and in the process defeated evil (in a moment when everyone thought evil had won!).
What or Who is your object of worship?