It’s easy to tell what a person worships by what he or she talks about the most. And, if we’re honestly assessing ourselves, what we worship the most is broadcast daily, hourly, and sometimes minute by minute on social media. We worship politics, we worship fun, comfort, our image, our kids, sports, our jobs, our social lives, or, especially, our opinions. We have a platform, and by George, we’re going to use it! Yet, as I scroll through the internet while trying to catch up on friends and loved ones, I see how unremarkable we really are, filming the most mundane things in the hopes of getting noticed. The fact of the matter is that, despite all the extra attention we bring upon ourselves, we’re not as important as we’ve come to believe about ourselves.
I’m not saying this to put anyone down. I’m saying this to draw our attention to a danger we’re all falling in to: we’re setting ourselves up to be the center of the universe, and, thus, setting ourselves up for failure. This is Original Sin manifesting itself again: that we decide for ourselves what is good and what is not, and attempt to sit upon the throne of God. This has been our problem from the beginning, a situation we never learn from, and always try and find a new way to manifest. Some day, we shall die, and, though people may, from time to time, visit our social media pages, remember us in some way, shape, or form, or visit and put a flower on our gravesite, eventually, we’ll be forgotten as if we never were. Encouraging, right? It isn’t if this life is all you put your hope in!
So why am I saying all this? What’s the point (I’m not trying to depress you, I swear!)? We need to draw attention off ourselves and put our worship, affection, and attention where it’s always belonged: on worship of God. In loving God to the best of my ability, I value what He values, and so I am able to love my family, friends, and enemies, because He loves them. In Worship of God, I draw my eyes away from a world that will soon forget me to a God who never leaves nor forsakes me. In that relationship, I can endure everything and anything. In submission to God, I become a servant, not just of Him, but of all people, and in doing so, some will be drawn to Him by my service to them. As I fix my eyes on Jesus, the things of this world fade, and I look toward the hope of eternity with the one who died to bring me back home to His Father, and this brings me great comfort and peace beyond all hope and understanding. James 4:1-12 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
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