2008 Woodie Awards
Think on these Things...
Watch out for the false gods in your life
Carrie Long
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Opinion
Exodus 20:3, 5-"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me"
These words seem so harsh; God is a jealous God? Some of us may think "I thought He was loving. What's up with that?"
God is loving, but His love demands our loyalty. If we do not follow after Him, why should He love us?
In all fairness, He shouldn't love us; but it is His love for us which saves us from destruction when we follow afterother "gods."
In today's society, other gods can and will creep in, almost unnoticeably. These other "gods" can include time, friends, family, sports, school, work, and television; pretty much anything that takes our focus awayn from God and causes us to neglect Him.
These other gods come in seemingly as necessity, but we let them take over our lives. We no longer have time to worship the God who loves us and we end up setting Him aside for algebra homework or our favorite TV show.
In Isaiah 44:9, the Bible says, "They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit…" This means that cramming 10 hours
for a test, and not asking God for help, or totally neglecting Him, will be less profitable than studying for an hour and asking God to bless your efforts.'
Furthermore, keep in mind that God
is not Santa Clause. It is unfair to treat God as a "genie of the lamp" and expect Him to get us out of trouble when we have
not spoken to Him or read His Word for weeks. We are all guilty of letting these other "gods" creep into our lives, but let's be aware of such things, and make sure we give to theLord all that is due to Him.
These words seem so harsh; God is a jealous God? Some of us may think "I thought He was loving. What's up with that?"
God is loving, but His love demands our loyalty. If we do not follow after Him, why should He love us?
In all fairness, He shouldn't love us; but it is His love for us which saves us from destruction when we follow afterother "gods."
In today's society, other gods can and will creep in, almost unnoticeably. These other "gods" can include time, friends, family, sports, school, work, and television; pretty much anything that takes our focus awayn from God and causes us to neglect Him.
These other gods come in seemingly as necessity, but we let them take over our lives. We no longer have time to worship the God who loves us and we end up setting Him aside for algebra homework or our favorite TV show.
In Isaiah 44:9, the Bible says, "They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit…" This means that cramming 10 hours
for a test, and not asking God for help, or totally neglecting Him, will be less profitable than studying for an hour and asking God to bless your efforts.'
Furthermore, keep in mind that God
is not Santa Clause. It is unfair to treat God as a "genie of the lamp" and expect Him to get us out of trouble when we have
not spoken to Him or read His Word for weeks. We are all guilty of letting these other "gods" creep into our lives, but let's be aware of such things, and make sure we give to theLord all that is due to Him.
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