Worship

2 Kings 17:38-41

Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods.  Rather, worship the LORD your God; it is He who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.  They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices.  Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.

The other day reading my devotions, I found this verse. “Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving other idols.” I read it over and over again…in disbelief.  How could people, God’s people, worship Him and at the same moment worship idols?    It was difficult to imagine.  Standing in corporate worship…singing praises to the LORD…bowing in reverence…sacrificing to Him…all the while worshiping an idol.  How in the world could that be?

God says we are in this world, but we are not suppose to be of it.  The reason being, there are lots of things here that can very easily become our idol.  Sometimes things have become an idol to us and we do not even realize it.  Other times we KNOW something has become an idol to us and we do nothing about it…other than continuing to serve it.  Things such as our home, job, children, husband, wife, money, car, boat or hobby can become an idol.  We can allow alcohol or pornography to become an idol.  We can also allow pride, jealousy, bitterness, grief, anger, depression, selfishness, doubt and many others to become something that we bow down to and serve.

These past several months I have been locked in a battle of grief.  Within this grief other things can rear their ugly head.  Depression, doubt, bitterness and anger, just to name a few.  As these things try to take hold in my life, I notice a strange thing happening.  My life can begin to be consumed by them.  As my thoughts linger in areas of doubt and grief my actions begin to change and revolve around those thoughts.  My life becomes centered around my grief and it’s affects instead of my God and Who He is.  If I allow this to go on for very long it can become a stronghold in my life.  I may go to church on Sunday morning…sing, bow, sacrifice and praise.  All the while…serving something other than God…I’m serving and bowing to the stronghold in my life.  Daily I must examine myself to make sure this doesn’t happen.

There are so many things in our lives that can begin to take the place of God as we bow down and serve them instead of Him.  We end up giving them more authority in our lives than God and before we know we it…we are bowing, serving, worshiping and allowing something other than God to take first place in our lives.  It is a very scary thing to think that we can actually worship Him in one way and in our hearts be serving something else.

This verse says that these people worshiped God and served idols…but it didn’t end there.  What they did was passed down, transferred to, taught and followed by their children AND grandchildren.  They were being watched…and mimicked.  The lives of those they loved most, after watching them closely, decided to follow the pattern of  what they saw and also worship God and serve idols.  How scary.  What about my family?  Am I, by my example teaching my children and grandchildren to worship God only…or are they seeing me worship Him while serving an idol?  God says that He alone is to be worshiped…He will not share His glory with another.  We must be diligent to examine closely our priorities…to make sure that we are worshiping and serving God only.  To bring before Him any idol that may try to take His place…so that He alone will be worshiped and served in our lives.

May this be a daily discipline…to worship the LORD our God…and to serve no other.

Sending much love,

Debbie

This entry was written on July 1, 2010 at 2:56 am