Who or what is your god?

Good morning, everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served what was created instead of the Creator …” Romans 1:25 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Who or what is your god?”

When it comes to a person having distorted doctrine and subsequent weak faith instead of sound doctrine and strong faith, one of the greatest dangers is the formation of idols in our lives. Idols distract us, capture our attention, and draw us away from the One True God.

What we’re reading about in Romans 1:18-25 is that instead of worshiping the Creator, with a pure heart and with a genuine desire to know Him, as Paul was writing about in the previous passage in Romans 1, the human race has historically descended into idolatry and the worship of false Gods. So, what does Paul mean when he writes in verse 20 “since they knew God?” I believe he was referring to two things. First, this is a reference to the human race in general and second, it can also be true of Christians who do know God but then seek substitutes for Him anyway.

First, let’s consider the human race in general. As Paul has already noted, they are aware of God simply through creation. Beyond that, as Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “God has set eternity in their hearts”. God created human beings with an intuitive understanding that there is more than just this lifetime, there is a supernatural world – a spiritual dimension, and there is a God. We know it in our hearts. We can see Him in His creation, and we sense in our hearts that He exists. That then should cause all humans to seek Him with a genuine desire to know Him.

But historically humans have not wanted to know the One True God. Instead, we create for ourselves gods who are more to our liking and who provide us with something we desire. Idolatry is worship. And at the heart of worship is the attribution of glory. When we worship someone or something we are attributing glory to that false god and almost always we do it because we believe that idol or false god can benefit us in some way.

That’s the motive behind all idolatry. In ancient times peopled created for themselves statues and images of gods that they thought would give them power, or riches, or fertility, or good crops. Most of us today don’t have statues in our homes that we bow down and worship, but we do have many other idols in our lives that we do worship. For many of us they are the idols of money and possessions; for some of us it is career accomplishment; for others it is physical attractiveness, or the praise of others, or political power. We all worship at some altar, we all bow down to someone or something. Those are idols too.

We will think more about this tomorrow. For today I want to call all of us to prayerfully consider if we have allowed anything to become an idol in our life. Is there something that is drawing you away from the One True God. Who or what is your god?

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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