This Demands My All

As I sit here, preparing to write a post that I know I must write after praying and talking with God, I find that there is no adequate way to begin this. Let me just get to the point...

I have been reading in Jeremiah for the past couple of days and this morning was so struck by how hurt God must feel when His beloved people turn from Him to worship other "gods". Stick with me here... I imagine that most of you who call yourselves Christians probably read that sentence and said to yourself, "nope, that's not me. I haven't gone and worshiped another god." But let me keep writing about God's heart to you for a second and then I'll explain...

He's given so much -even the life of His own Son- because He loves us that much! He went out of His way to win us by dying a horrible death on that cross so that our sin can be removed, -and then we turn around and worship other "gods"? How much grief He must feel! How rightfully jealous He must be over His beloved! 

He is better than the best lover on the whole earth! He pursued us long before we ever even thought of Him. Even when we were His enemies, He sought to win us. Imagine that day when He payed the ultimate price -His own life- knowing that in doing so, He would win you and I to Himself to be His and His alone... His precious bride that He would live with for all of eternity. He arose victorious over the grave, knowing that in doing so He could give sinful humanity new life in Him...

And then that day came that you and I, dear Christian, received Him and became the bride of Christ. We became united with Him. He finally won the heart of His bride. What joy He had, what pleasure! Because in you and I receiving Him as our personal Savior, His purpose was being fulfilled. We became His! His heart's desire was fulfilled! 

But then, along comes that lie from Satan, "He can't really give you all the pleasure you want. He's not really enough." ...And how many there are of us that believe it! 

You might be thinking, "I know that I haven't believed that lie!" But let me challenge you, you may not remember Satan telling you that lie. You may not even remember the moment you believed it and thought those things to be true. But if you are chasing after something or someone other than God, you HAVE believed that lie! 

Look at your life, dear Christian! Are you satisfied? Do you find yourself wanting more and more in this life? Are you content where He has you? If everything you do have were taken away from you, and every person you thought loved you turned on you, would you still be satisfied in God alone? Can you picture yourself giving everything up for Him were He to ask you? Would you obey without a thought for your own life?

Do you feel like your life is being lived to the fullest right now? In Jeremiah 2:5, God says something very sad about His people, "'...They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves." Is your life "down in the dumps," so to speak? Maybe it's because you aren't worshiping God ALONE! According to that verse, you become like what you worship. 

If you worship God, His character will very evidently be seen in your life! 

But, can I be specific here? I hesitate because some of you will be offended at how specific I'm being. Let me do a bullet point list of some of the "idols" American Christians worship, ok?

• Rock stars/music -Those who worship this become sensual in their behavior and rebellious. I don't have time to get into why that is true, but this is something I've seen in the lives of people I've ministered to or come across in ministry.
• Movie stars/movies/TV/sports heroes -Those who worship this become lazy and live their lives to be entertained. Their ability to rationalize becomes tainted by fantasy. They start to imitate the movie stars/sports heroes they look up to.
• Appearance -Those who worship this are obsessed with diets, eating disorders, excessive exercise. They sink lots of money into their wardrobe, or their household items, cars, accessories, etc. (It may not be all of the above, but it ends up being at least one of them.) 
• Video games/fun/games/amusement/sports -Those who worship this live from one excursion to the next, or from one "high score" to the next. They have very little sense of purpose and don't live for anything beyond themselves.
• Friends/social life/social media/boyfriends/girlfriends -Those who worship this spend more time away from home or on social media than living real life. They are always concerned about what others think of them. Their joy and satisfaction comes when more friends come into their lives. Their happiness is completely dependent on what their friends think and what they are going to be doing with their friends.
• Religion/standards -Those who worship this care more about what they look like to others than what God sees in their heart. They are legalistic, and they tend to look "good". The only problem is, they are focused on performance and appearing holy to those around them, and sometimes even to God, but are fooling themselves, because God sees past their outward into their heart. 

...I could go on and write 10 times the size of this list. These are only a few compared to the many idols that Christians in America worship. These are maybe the top 6 that I can think of that I am finding extremely common among Christians. I'm not saying that all of those things are wrong, let that be between you and God if you should stop doing some of those things. But I am saying that these things listed above have a strong tendency to draw us away from what really matters to God.

Now, let's be honest here. Do you see the character of Christ lacking in your life? Do you see the fruit in your life that comes with worshiping something other than God? Is your life looking more like one of those "idols" than like Christ?

What pain we cause God when we start to look to those things to give us what ONLY HE can give! 

Something that really struck me in Jeremiah 3:19, was God passionately expressing His heart for His people that turned away from Him. He says this: "'I thought to myself, "I would love to treat you as my own children!" I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land -the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me "Father" and I wanted you never to turn from Me.'" 

Now I hope you are asking yourself, "What do I do?" as I did when I read these things...

Here is what God Himself says in Jeremiah 3:12-15: "...My faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against Him by worshiping idols... Confess that you refused to listen to My voice.... Return home... for I am your master.... And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding."

He wants you, dear Christian to be honest with Him about where you are! Don't run away from Him in shame! Approach Him and name those idols to Him. Tell Him you want to worship them no longer! Let Him take the place of "Master" in your life and guide you with knowledge and understanding. Let Him satisfy you! He loves you and wants you. 

He has never left you and never will. Ah, but let us not take advantage, for in doing so, we grieve His Spirit! Let us set aside our fleshly desires -die to ourselves- and make Christ our ALL! He deserves it, for He died for you, and this demands our all!