Psalm 106:19-23

How many times do we trade God, the Creator, for something created? In a horrible case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, the Israelites decided to make an image of gold in the form of a calf and worship it as God, even though they had witnessed God doing amazing things in their midst. They forgot God, their Savior. We were created to give praise to God, not to His creation or worship the work of our own hands.

Consider the words of Paul…

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.6.19-20.NLT

We do not belong to ourselves. That certainly is a strange concept to process. We were bought by God, referring to Jesus dying on the cross for us, and we owe God our allegiance. We are to offer our worship to Him alone for He alone is worthy. We are not to give what is His alone and give it to another for even the praise belongs to Him.

God is very clear about His thoughts on the matter:

““I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭42‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.42.8.NLT

There will always be things that vie for our affections but we must make it our goal to put God first before anything else. The struggle is real for every day we are pulled by good things at the expense of the Best Thing, which is God. We rationalize away our time and our resources for other things while God gets the scraps.

Just being real here. We have a hard time going to church once a week, let alone twice a week. In fact many churches have dropped their midweek service for lack of participation. Yet when I read my Bible, it says:

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭23‬-‭25‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/100/heb.10.23-25.NASB1995

We are to assemble together all the more (more frequently) as we see  His day approaching, not less.

We say that God is first in our lives but does an inventory of our lives and actions prove otherwise?

We must not be like those who made excuses when called upon by the Lord in the parable of the Great Feast (Luke 14:15-24). We might miss out completely.

Happy Sunday all! What a great day to recommit to God and show Him you are serious about putting Him first. In the words of Jesus,

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭12‬:‭34‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/100/luk.12.34.NASB1995

See you there!

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