Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”
Our Bible verse for today: “How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the Lord’s instruction. Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart; Turn my heart to your decrees and not to material gain.” Psalm 119:1-2; 36 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Don’t allow your heart to be captured by idols.”
The primary reason Christians drift away from God is that we allow our heart to be captured by idols. I’m not talking about idols such as the golden calf of Exodus chapter thirty-two, or the statue of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter three. No, our idols are much more subtle than that. In our day we bow down to the idols of wealth and leisure, of power and stature, of good looks and peer acceptance, to mention just a few.
There are many things we can allow into our lives that become so important to us that they actually draw us away from God. Having a good job and a successful career that is advancing in influence and income is a good thing – unless that career becomes a consuming passion in your life and begins to get in the way of other things that should be more important, like your relationship with God and spending time with your family.
Saving and investing money is fine – it’s smart and a matter of being a good steward. But it can also become more than a simple matter of good stewardship. It can become an unhealthy obsession. When that happens, your wealth has become your god.
Rest, relaxation, and leisure are important parts of a healthy and balanced life. Spending time in the great outdoors playing golf, hiking, fishing, riding a bike, are good things. Unless you’re doing them on Sunday morning instead of going to church as God’s Word instructs. Then the good thing has become a bad thing because it is taking you away from the best thing that God instructed you to do (Hebrews 10:24-25).
In Psalm 119 the writer reminds us of the joy that is ours when we keep our priorities straight. When our heart is truly seeking God and our desire is to simply be obedient to His commands, then we will know true joy. The idols of the world, all those things that distract us and draw us away from God, cannot begin to compare to the simple joy of knowing God and being obedient to Him.
A fresh encounter with God which leads to spiritual renewal and revival will result in a re-ordering of our priorities. It will restore us and bring us back to the place where God is number one and everything else is lower on the list.
I encourage you today to give some thought to what things in your life may have become a sort of idol for you. What is it that has become just a little too important to you and may now be getting in the way of your relationship with God?
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 