Who is Your God?

For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:21

Who do you worship?

What do you worship?

We, as 21st century Americans, have so many opportunities to “know Him as God” but not “honor Him as God.”  On Sunday morning we raise our hands, we lift our voices and we praise Him. We are sincere, so it is not an effort to turn from Him or a refusal to honor Him.  We are simply drawn to trust something besides Him as a response to the voids in our everyday lives.

I would suggest that whatever you go to first to conquer your fears…has temporarily become your god. If the realization that your child is out past their curfew makes you worry and you run to the phone before you pray, you might be a mobile phone worshiper. If a high fever in your toddler causes you to ask a doctor what to do before you ask God, you might be a doctor worshiper. Mobile phones are not bad, doctors are not bad…thank God for technology and medicine…both have saved lives. My point is that we run to things like this as a first resort to our fear and it is telling of our trust, our surrender and our faith.

We fear disease, so we sacrifice our children to medications, treatments and vaccines.

We fear the unknown, so we erect idols of “up to the second” information sources.

We fear loneliness and abandonment, so we pledge our allegiance to social networks and check in on ourselves incessantly.

We fear emptiness and discomfort, so we store up treasure: in our pantry with snacks, and our shelves with romance novels and “good” movies.

We fear being talked about, so we give honor to the best, the latest, the most expensive and always coordinated for our children’s wardrobes, our dining room set and the monogrammed flag outside our front door.

We fear being poor, so we give our zeal to work, pushing ourselves and our spouses to do more, make more, be more and win more.

We fear being fat, so we baptize ourselves in sweat and memorize the principles and promises of the latest fad diet.

We fear our children being overlooked, so we dedicate them to three sports a year and a music class to keep things well rounded.

None of us are immune to the temptation to look beyond simple truth and antiquated patience for the answers that will last beyond a motivational speech or the next technology. I am not pointing any fingers beyond my own hunger for fleeting solutions and a hero I can control with a remote.

In the past several days I have found myself being caught in the trap of overlooking my Bible for what I need. I realized I was doing it when I went from one thing to another around the house and noticed I lacked the satisfaction I couldn’t quite identify, but was certainly craving. I was looking for God. Looking for His comfort, His love, His fullness and His quiet, restful peace. I couldn’t find Him on facebook, though His people spouted wonderful reminders of Him there. I couldn’t find Him over a wonderful lunch, though He faithfully blessed it when I asked. I couldn’t find Him on Pinterest, though marks of His creative ways were displayed in lovely colors and patterns. I couldn’t find Him in the kitchen, though I worked faithfully to plan and prepare wonderful meals that would honor the family He’s given me. Incidentally, I couldn’t find Him in the laundry either. (I have determined long ago laundry is a chore from another eternal destination.)

He is available to me in all these places, but by themselves they will never satisfy me. I must go to the Word. I must worship Him in the process of stillness and time in order to carry His presence through the rest of my day. Today, when I reached for a snack I asked myself…”why do you want that?” Sure I love the taste in my mouth, but often it is to fill a small void for a moment. It truly makes me feel good to eat, it brings a temporary comfort. When I recognize that, I MUST go to the Word. Seek HIM, His face, His Kingdom and I am promised that “all these things” will be added unto me. Besides, it would be embarrassing to stand before Him someday and have to admit that one day in January I was worshiping a bag of pretzels.

I noticed last week, as these thoughts were still swirling around in my mind, that my friend Rebecca’s blog focused on the “food god” as “a bad drug.” She lays out some good solutions to the problem too.  Apparently God was using the same finger to nudge our individual conscience last week.  I realized her ideas can be applied to any of our other temporary gods as well.

It’s so important that we get this right.  Look at the rest of what Paul had to say in Romans 1:22-25

Professing to be wise,
they became fools,and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God
for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,
so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

What a mistake.  What a shame.  Some find it difficult to trust God when things are bad.  I wonder if it’s not more difficult to trust Him when things are simply okay, and we are met with the ease of substitute and temporary “saviors” all around us.