Everybody worships something. Even atheists bow at the throne of their intellectual reason. Worship is an inevitable function of humanity because everything God created He created for His pleasure. But when we choose to create our own gods, to assign value and priority in our lives to anything other than God we are still worshiping. The only difference is the in the wisdom of our choice of gods.
Nothing that is worshipped apart from God has power in itself. Idols receive their power from and are limited to the strength of their creators. The creator has dominion over what he has created. The creature can never have dominion over the creator. Any idol we create is already weaker than we are so why should we submit ourselves to the authority of something that can do us no good? We are surrounded in our prosperity with so many things any one of which can become for us an idol.
What we value most is what we worship. But when the worthy-ness of God is acknowledged, when God alone is worshipped, when God is given first priority and final authority in our lives, then, all the things that are sought after through idols who cannot provide them, are provided by the only One who can provide them, God, the Creator. He alone is the source of blessing and provision for His created beings, you and me.
Yes, we are indeed His people and the sheep of His pasture. But we are now through Jesus are even more, we are His sons and daughters, His children, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ of all the glory of God.
“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:” John 17:22
Yes. We become one with the one we worship. We become alike in nature and character with the one to whom we submit ourselves to worship.
“For the LORD will judge His people, and He will have compassion on His servants. The idols of the nations aresilver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them.” Psalm 135:14-18
“Father, and Creator God, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and King, thank You for creating us in Your image and after Your likeness, for giving us the freedom to make choices in life and the wisdom to choose wisely. Thank You for revealing Your self through the love of Jesus Christ by whom we have redemption, and in whom we have all our needs met. We acknowledge that You are our source for every necessity of life and that in worshipping You and You alone there is great reward. Father, bless our families today, bless and protect our children, let Your favor rest on fathers and mothers, on neighbors and friends. Let there be in our lives no other gods before You. Thank You, Father in the glorious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord we pray. Amen.”
Isaiah 43.14 — 45.10, Ephesians 3.1— 21, Psalm 68.1— 18, Proverbs 24.1—2
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