Daily Bread #12
A Thought To Ponder:
I like being in charge. If we are driving any distance, I want to be in the driver seat. If we are deciding where to eat, what movie to see, or what activity we engage in I want to make the final decision. I don’t like to depend on anyone or anything but me. That often doesn’t work out well for me. Like a small boat in rough seas, I have to admit that I’m at the mercy of forces and powers well beyond my control. Those forces are most often my wife and kids, but there’s many other sovereigns to which I have to bow.
Pledging our allegiance to Christ and making Him Lord of our life is a daily acknowledgement that we are not in control. We bow our hearts and our wills to His sovereignty. This is easy to say and difficult to practice. I believe this is why Christ said in Luke 9:23-24, “…If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
David Wells, in his book God In The Wilderness, calls the church to deeper commitment to the Lord,
“The choice for God now has to become one in which the church begins to form itself, by his grace and truth, into an outcropping of counter-cultural spirituality.
It must give up self-cultivation for self-surrender, entertainment for worship, intuition for truth, slick marketing for authentic witness, success for faithfulness, power for humility, a God bought on cheap terms for the God who calls us to costly obedience. It must, in short, be willing to do God’s business on God’s terms.”
May we strive this week to give up our false sense of control and place our lives back into the hands of the one that made us!
Questions To Discuss:
Why do you think the Israelites turned so quickly away from God and towards a graven image?
Why would they think a golden calf would be a better god to serve?
How are we pressured to follow the modern gods around us? You might start by identifying what kind of gods we serve today.
What do you think of God being a jealous God? How is He jealous for us? Does this make Him less powerful or worthy of our respect?
If being jealous for someone or something can be a positive thing (and it can if it’s an attribute of God) what kinds of things should we be jealous for?
How can we eliminate the small gods we chase after and pursue the one, true God?
A Scripture To Read:
Colossians 3:1-7
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
A Prayer For Change:
Here’s a powerful prayer about idolatry and getting rid of idols in our lives from Kevin Halloran.
Father, You are so glorious and merciful. You created every good thing, and still You would choose to redeem me and make me Your treasure. There’s nothing I could do to deserve this mercy in Christ, yet You lavish it upon me in ways too great to fully comprehend.
And yet my sinful heart draws me away from You to other things—sometimes subtly, and sometimes deliberately. This idolatrous world, my weak flesh, and our cunning enemy entice my heart to set my affections on aspects of Your creation instead of loving and honoring You as Creator. Why would I turn to an object of wood or stone or flesh or plastic or metal that cannot speak or heal or feel or understand or save? Because my sin blinds me to spiritual reality and makes me a fool.
Lord, rip off the blinders! Untangle the webs of sin that have encapsulated my heart and drawn me from You! Forgive me for my gross spiritual adultery and have mercy on me, a sinner!