Where God's Word Meets Our Mess
Dear Idol, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. I'm wondering why I devote so much of my time and energy to you. I mean, you’re not the best thing that’s ever happened to me. In fact, you’ve left me feeling miserable, guilty, and anxious quite often.
I fully believe that true Christians will bear fruit. And that fruit will be obvious to other people, like faithfulness and joy and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). But I don’t believe we are on the deadline that we give ourselves.
I knew God was speaking to me when I had that “little fall.” Although my name is Grace, I’m not very gracious—especially to others. Rather, I’m often haughty…and I fell.
Before I start ranting (mentally or audibly), I need to stop my thoughts and determine an appropriate response. Because every time I think a demeaning or debasing thought, I assume a position on the throne as holier-than-thou.
Jesus is our example in this situation, as He is in every situation. The disciples promised to stay with Him but quickly left Him. He could’ve left, too. He could’ve abandoned His mission. Instead, He watched and prayed. He asked God to be freed from His suffering, but He was also willing to die. What if the disciples had watched and prayed as well?
I know how much you want to destroy your idols, and I know how much you want to keep them. I know how impossible it feels not to worship them. I may set goals, have high ambitions, and desire to change. But I still feel like I’ll always be ruled by my idols. So how do I stop? How do we stop?
No one and nothing is like our God. He wants us to know Him, love Him, and worship Him only. But we can’t do that if we’re worshipping eight different idols—or even one.
We can blame our sin nature or our culture, or we can take responsibility for our actions and realize that we often don’t try to change our priorities. Maybe the reason we don’t have time to read our Bibles, pray, go to church, fellowship, or serve others is because we aren’t making time for those activities. To be honest, I usually don’t make time for these activities either.
God patiently re-teaches me that to live and walk the way He meant, only comes through Jesus and His power. I need a perfect, mighty Savior to come alongside and give strength to change. This lesson comes with difficulty, but my failures teach me to trust God’s strength.
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