Our Blog

Responding Genuinely to God - Beware of Idolatry

How do we respond genuinely to God?

We were created to know Him and love Him. He has given us His word where He has revealed Himself to us; His love, mercy, character, His dealings with mankind and much more. It has been said, we will spend an eternity with Him and just scratch the surface in our knowledge of Him. To me, this is exciting. But since the fall of Adam, mankind’s natural awe and wonder for God was ruined. God in His great love and mercy provided a remedy in Jesus. In Christ we regain the awe and wonder of God. We may offer Him faithful worship as He so rightly deserves.

The opposite of faithful worship is idolatry. It is sinful and dangerous. It is sinful because it denies God of His rightful place as Lord and Savior in our lives. It is dangerous because it will lead us into more sins.

John the Apostle warned us in his first epistle. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen (1 John 5:21).
This letter was written to believers in Jesus. Is it possible to have an idol in our life? But we are Christians. I gave my life to Christ. I read and study the Bible.

How is that possible? Let’s go back to verse 18 of 1 John.

We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. When a person is born again he is given a new heart and new desires. He wants to read the Bible and learn about God. Most importantly he received the Holy Spirit to dwell within him. So when John says “whoever is born of God does not sin.” he is saying that person’s lifestyle is not characterized by sinful living. We still have a sin nature. We find ourselves sinning after we have confessed Christ as our Savior. The big difference is that the Holy Spirit convicts us now. We cannot go on sinning if we are listening to Him. We grieve Him when we do not repent of the sins He points out. His Spirit is quenched too.

Remember Paul battled with sin as he explained in Romans 7 7:20-25 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is not longer I who do it, but sin
that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin.

Paul battled with sin after his conversion.

Because of Jesus sin no longer has dominion over us (read Romans 6:14).
If you are battling with a sin - Say aloud - “That sin no longer has dominion over me!”

1John 5:18b- 19 and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one We belong to the Father and He is protecting us. Anything we face has been allowed by Him or is His will for us. He intends good for us and to bring glory to Himself.

v 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Jesus has come to give us understanding of Himself and of His Father. He accomplishes this through the Word of God and by His Spirit.

Jesus declared when He was speaking to His disciples, “If you had known Me,
you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him (John 14:7).

In Jesus’ high priestly prayer He prayed to His Father, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3) “Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth” (John 17:17). After having known God, how can we entertain the idea of having an idol?

It comes from worry and doubt. We worry or doubt whether God will provide for our needs.

He tells us: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat,’ or ‘What shall we drink,’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matt 6:31-34).

We worry about what direction to take in our lives including what person should I marry, what job should I accept, should I go to college etc.?

He tells us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5,6).

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in His way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand (Psalm 37:23, 24).

These questions and struggles are tough. Often there is no easy answer.

Sometimes two paths look equally good.

In all these struggles we face, the Lord is growing us. We are learning to trust in Him more. We are learning by our experiences with Him that His is faithful and true to His word. I think this is one of the main lessons here: Will I trust God? We create idols in our minds when we trust in something other than God to meet our needs.

One author wrote:

“We enjoy God to the degree that we worship him faithfully. Faithful worship - including praise, prayer, obedience, and faith - matters because idolatry, in whatever form, satisfies neither God nor us. Worship does not require that we perfectly understand everything about God but that we respond genuinely to the true God who makes himself known to us.” (Kapic, A Little Book for New Theologians, pg. 21)

Idolatry satisfies neither God nor us. What would be satisfying? This author tells us. Faithful worship will satisfy God and us.

Faithful worship including:

1. Praise. - For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared
above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the
heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. (Psalm 96:4-6)

2. Prayer - Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). The
effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16b).

3. Obedience - So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).

4. Faith - For without faith it is impossible to please God. He who comes to Him
must believe that He is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

How do we respond genuinely to God? We worship God faithfully in praise, prayer, obedience, and faith.

Believe God’s Word

Believe God’s Word.

We hear that revival is needed for our country to get us back on track to return to being a nation under God. I agreed. So I prayed the prayer many use for a time such as this.

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people  who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

After praying this prayer many times for many months, I added to this prayer the following:

Lord, help us, Your people,  to believe what you say in Your word.

I was thinking maybe we’re praying this prayer but not really believing God will answer it. (Maybe it’s just me, the way I am. I’m told I overthink things.)

After praying this prayer with the added sentence I decided to add something else:

Lord, help us to believe what You say in Your word…and especially me. Please help me to believe what You say in Your word.

God answered that prayer! I believe He is answering the first prayer too. Praise God!

Today I want us to look at an example of someone believing God, believing His word and seeing the results of that belief.

Let’s look at Abraham. God made a promise to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

What a great promise. This promise extends to us today! As you know, through Abraham and his descendants came Jesus the Messiah, our Savior.

Now Abraham didn’t start out as a great man of faith. The Lord worked with him bringing him into a greater faith and trust in Him. He works the same way with us.

Now Abraham was saved the same way we are today, i.e. by grace through faith.

Ephesians 2:8,9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The Apostle Paul tells us that we are declared righteous by God when we place our faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross which payed the penalty for our sins.  In other words, we believe God. But someone may ask, “Abraham lived before Jesus became a man and died for the sins of the world.So how was he saved? In Romans 4:1-4 we read, 

What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

So in this first part of Romans 4, Abraham (and David) are used as examples from the Old Testament to show that they were saved by faith and not by the works they did. They believed God.

What Abraham wanted most was an heir. He and Sarah tried to speed up the process and try to do it their own way by having Hagar bear an heir, a son for them. But God used this time of unbelief  to grow their faith and trust in Him. God will do the same for us.

Now this is the section I wanted to focus on. The end of verse 4:16 Abraham is called the father of us all

4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed - God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

Here we see plainly - Abraham believed God! He believed in the One who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “so shall your descendants be.”

This promise is found in Genesis 17:1ff

In verse 5 God told Abram: No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

The name Abram means Exalted Father. Abraham means Father of a multitude. God had made this promises to Abraham before and now repeated it when Abraham was ninety-nine years old. Notice Abraham’s response back in Romans

4:19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthen in faith, giving glory to God, and being full convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore, “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. In other words, he believed God and his faith was strengthened. Our faith and belief in God’s promises gives God glory. We become convinced or sure that God is able to do what He says He will do. We can join Paul as he proclaims in Ephesians 3:20, 21

 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen.

Abraham believed God and received the promise. He became the father of many nations. All the families of the earth are blessed because through Abraham came Jesus the Savior of the world.

We serve the same God as Abraham did. God has made promises to us. We can receive them, believe God for them, and enjoy the benefit of them.

He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

He has promised to meet our needs. We are to seek Him first then these things are added to us.

He said those who live godly will suffer persecution, but He has overcome the world. In Christ we can be an overcomer too.

2 Peter 1:1-4

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power had given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Unpacking these verses would be a complete study (or a few studies) in itself. But notice these promises have been given to us.  It is written in the past tense. They are already ours to use.

1. We have obtained like precious faith
2. We are given all things that pertain to life and godliness
3. We have been given exceedingly great and precious promises

We are to believe God, receive what He has given us, and act as if was so.

We do this with His power and strength and by staying in His word so we can be reminded of all these things. We need constant reminders. I’ll leave you with two last verses

Colossians 2:6, 7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

We received Jesus by faith and we walk with Him by faith.

There is great reward in believing God.

Synopsis

1. We pray using 2 Chronicles 7:14 asking for revival. But do we believe God will answer this prayer?
2. We should ask God to help us believe in His word and His promises.
3. Take a look at Abraham who believed God and received the promises, In Genesis 12:1-3 God made Abraham a great promise. Through this promise Jesus is given to us.
4. Abraham was saved as we are saved today - through grace by faith (Ephesians 2:8, 9)5.
5. Abraham believed God, was saved and received the promises of  God that he would be the father of many nations.
6. We serve the same God who has made promises to us (2 Peter 1:1-40)

We are to believe God for these promises. Our actions should reflect that we do believe Him, and walk by faith in Him.