The Things We Worship
Opening Prayer
Patient Father, help me to get it straight. You build me from the inside out. Continue to work on me and build me anew in You.
Read 2 KINGS 17:24-41
[24]
Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).
Think Further
According to Assyrian records, deportation involved only a small percentage of the population–mainly the ruling families. The majority of the people were subsistence farmers left to work the land. The Assyrians (though not the later Babylonians) completed their pacification by bringing in other ethnic groups (24) to fracture the communities and prevent any coordinated resistance. This was the practice that gave rise to the mixed-ancestry Samaritans of Jesus’ day. The consequences were not only political impotence but also religious pluralism, with an ever-increasing smorgasbord of gods to choose from. Sometimes pagan worship was combined with worship of the Lord (32,33,41).
We are in just as much danger today of putting idols in the place of or alongside God–not usually ones made of wood or stone, but things we think will make us happy or rescue us from danger or give meaning to our life. Perfectly good things such as family, work, ministry, or service to others can be idols if we give them ultimate importance. “[An] idol is god with all the God taken out… God depersonalized” (Eugene Peterson). These idols–addictions is a helpful way to think of them–traditionally fall into the categories of money, sex and power, which the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience were intended to counteract. Often we too try to combine them with worship of the true God.
It is constructive to reflect on what dominates our lives, squeezing out our relationship with God. What do we think about in our quieter moments? What are our daydreams? How do we spend our money, indicating where our heart is (Matt. 6:21)? How do we respond to setbacks? What arouses our strongest emotions–fear, anger, shame? Do they arise from some addiction controlling our life?
Apply
In his Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), Jesus gives us kingdom values, overturning all other values. Read his words and be blessed even “when you’re at the end of your rope” (Matt. 5:3, The Message).
Closing prayer
God, You are so important to me. However, I do have a tendency to put things ahead of You. Help me to really put You first in my life.
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