"He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol, or swear by what is false. He will receive blessings from the Lord and vindication from God his savior." Psalm 24:4-5 (NIV)
How many of us can truly say that we have never lifted up our souls to an idol even for a minute? I don't mean the wooden poles and golden calves in the Old Testament, I mean the false idols of today. Money, power, vanity, lust, and the list goes on and on. We take God given things which were proclaimed "good" when God made the earth and have corrupted them into sin. The worship of false idols has never been so apparent in America than today. We love money!! Money and power are good!! Of course, the minute that money and power fail us we cry out to God wanting to know why He has forsaken us. The fall of the economy and the loss of homes, jobs, and all the things that make us important in our own eyes have gone away. What do we have then? One can only hope they have the blessings of the Lord and have their priorities in order. The Lord will provide for those who keep their eyes on Him. Our family is a great example of this. Last year, I unexpectedly lost my income. We weren't sure, or should I say I wasn't sure, how things were going to proceed in our life. My husband's enormous faith and guidance has lead us into our new business and more blessings from God that we ever fathomed. Our friends and family prayed for us, reached out to us, and we now understand that our blessings don't get directly deposited into the bank account twice a month. They come all day, every day, from our Father above. There is nothing greater than succeeding in a time of so much failure because you have true faith-understanding that all honor and glory go to God for everything that you have accomplished when the world seems completely against you. I pray for our country and our president and for all the people who have lost in our time of distress. Our "hope" that is so prevalent in speeches today seems in vain to me. We cannot truly have hope until we have FAITH in the One who gives us hope. Things will continue to get worse before they get better. And I don't mean the return of economic stability to the world-I mean the return of our Savior Jesus Christ to reign on high and overcome the evil of this world. I just praise the Lord for giving me and my family one more day together in His grace until it is time to live with Him forever!
It is so easy to have a false idol without even realizing it. For years, my mind was so focused on earthly things. Nothing evidently evil, but material things that took the place of my first love. It really is a frightening when you realize it. I now pray that God will always be first in my heart and life. If I can't please him, honor him, and bring him glory with my life, I have wasted all. Thank you for your inspiring words today. Many blessings to you.
ReplyDeleteAndrea