Friday Reading: Isaiah 44:14-17
Key Verse: Isaiah 44:15
15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
Devotion:
I guess we would all look at a verse like this and say “I would not do something so foolish as to carve my own god out of wood”; but how many of us do continue to carve our own metaphorical gods from the things around us? If we are honest we will see that there are certain things in our own lives that we do more than we should or take care of more than other things to the extent that we ignore the things of God and we ignore God’s ways just so that we can have our own way with these things. If you think that that is not the same as making your own god with your own hands then I then I think we need to sit down and talk.
Christ reminded us enough times that we need to make sure that God is the one who comes first in our lives and that we lift Him up for His glory and nothing in His stead. If we are going to lift up anything else before God then we are not listening to Him. This does not mean that we can simply ignore everything else nor does it mean that we do not have to take care of those things in our lives that we don’t like doing – that is just part of life and we have to deal with that. God wants us to be diligent in everything that we do but most of all He wants us to love Him above everything.
He is the one who has given us the family that we have so loving our family is paramount because we need to take care of everything He has given us. He is the one who gives us life, so we need to take care of our lives and health. He is the one who gives us those special people in our lives that we love, so we need to make sure that we take care of them just as much. But in everything that we do, we need to uphold the name of our God first of all and make sure that we try to follow His will in doing so. As long as we are doing that, we will be working towards pleasing Him and glorifying Him for everything that He gives us in our lives. Ignoring Him or lifting up anything else in His stead is doing exactly the opposite by saying that we can do better than Him! Think again!
Points to Ponder:
Are you good at doing something?
Who is it that gave you that ability in the first place?
