Idols

What is your idol? What is the most important thing in your life? What is the thing that you couldn’t live without? What if God took it away? Would you praise His name still, or would there be a waver in your footstep? I know we all would want to believe the best about ourselves, we think “Of course I would still praise God.” But are we just kidding ourselves? Is it a loved one? A girlfriend or boyfriend, a spouse, maybe a close friend? Your child? Perhaps it’s a job, a place where we feel comfortable and accepted. The point is what is that thing you are holding onto harder than you are holding onto God? Because whatever it is, one of two things will happen. Either we will give it up, fully submitting ourselves to God and to His Will, or He will strip us of it. I know this seems like a harsh word to bring, but I feel it must be spoken. If God has purposed us for a calling, if He has set aside good works for us to do for His Kingdom, then He will make us ready to do those things we are called to do. I am a firm believer that God can best work in us and through us when we are broken. If we are not broken, then we are able to function on our own, and can lapse into that habit of thinking “Oh, I have so much to do right now, I can spend time with God tomorrow.” I am just as guilty as anyone else of this, but God is breaking me and keeping me broken. And if we are in that broken state, there is nowhere for us to run but to God. Throughout the bible there is an analogy used, comparing us to pottery and God to the potter. God cannot make a vase or other beautiful work of art out of an already formed vase (us relying on ourselves). However, if the previous vase is broken, the fragments can be broken down and used to create something new and beautiful. We need to be broken so that God can build us up again into the man or woman we are supposed to be. So let me ask it again: what are you holding onto? What are you relying on? What are you clinging to, fearing that if you let go your world will fall apart? Will you let it go? Will you allow God to take it? I pray that we would be a broken people, crying out to God for our strength. In that place we will be made into a generation set apart for Him. In that place we will be made into servants, ready to do the will of our Master, wherever it may take us. We thank God for the good times, but rejoice in the hard times, in the suffering that produces an end result greater than anything we could imagine. I’m closing out this post with a song by Kutless. It’s the last track on their latest worship album, and I think it sums up everything pretty well. Listen to it, take the lyrics to heart, and let the meaning of the song be a holy hymn sung from the depths of your heart.