The whole world worships at the idol of I. If it feels good, do it. You can have it your way. You only live once. Some even think there’s a perpetual party in hell, a place of unending booze. To them, hell is a playground not a place of torment. I’ll see you in hell, they say. Deceived. The god they worship isn’t the God of the Bible. Rather, they worship a force, an ethereal being, or the likeness of some self styled god or they think there is no God. Foolish! They choose to believe a lie and worship at the idol of I. Even believers can get wrapped up in the image of the idol of I. Life is about the pursuit of pleasure. It happens all the time. The idol of I can cause even dedicated to stumble and fall to self promotion, selfish ambition, and self delusion. I’d like to talk about that in this post.
The most dangerous threat to our lives is not the Devil. Rather, it’s our own flesh. And the number one battle we face in this life is the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. That unholy trinity revolves around the idol of I. We do what our body tell us to do: if it looks good, feels good, sounds good, smells good, tastes good, or provides pleasure to us, it’s good…or so we think. The issue: We aren’t called to live by what we feel, see, taste, smell, hear, or think. No! We are to walk by faith and not by sight. We are called to live in the Spirit. Our actions are to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are to be led by the Holy Spirit. And that means we must be ready to do what Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24, Christian Standard Bible.
The Apostle Paul living under the leadership of the Holy Spirit said, “I die daily”. 1 Corinthians 15:31. At times, the great Apostle Paul said, “we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about the suffering we experienced in Asia. We were so crushed beyond our ability to endure that we even despaired of living.” 2 Corinthians 1:8, ISV. Yet, he understood the purpose behind his pain: “we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead”. 2 Corinthians 1:9, NKJV. Crushing. Brutal. That’s the kind of life the Apostle Paul experienced that we might have the revelation of Jesus Christ taught in Bible schools and churches around the country and nations.
Not that the Apostle Paul wasn’t interested in living his life. He was. But he understood the sacrifices he was making: “If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” 1 Corinthians 15:32, Berean Standard Bible. He reminds the Corinthian believers, what he is doing has eternal significance; he’s rooted and grounded in Christ; in the hereafter not only the here and now. And that’s the difference between those who worship God and those who worship at the idol of I: An understanding and outlook that views life through the lens of that which is eternal.
Eternity beats in the heart of every man, woman, and child. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, Berean Standard Bible, King Solomon reveals that mystery: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end.” We are eternal beings, as God is an eternal being. Yet, we can only see in part; we don’t know everything. We learn. We grow. We gain knowledge and ability. Then, we can oftentimes, we pretend we know everything. And in our presumption, we begin to see how great we are…and we are great. God created us that way. King David said, “I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” But if we don’t see who we are through Him, we become something we were never meant to be — a law unto ourselves. Everyone who worships at the idol of I is a law unto themselves; they do what is right in their eyes.
I must ask: How long will you worship the great I? How long will you turn your hearts from Him to yourself? Can you not see that without Him you are nothing? Without Him, you have nothing? Despite what you own, all you claim as yours is merely lent to you by Him. As the Apostle James said, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4:14, Berean Standard Bible. Here today. Gone tomorrow. Missed for a time. Then, forgotten. In that time period, an eternal paradigm emerges — two people on our same path are inescapable — God and Us.
Along the path of life, we meet ourselves, our true selves, not the stuff of hype, but our true selves. We see who we are: our sin, our failures, our successes, our shortcomings, and how others react to the real us. Despite our attempts to hide ourselves behind leaves, as Adam and Eve did, we know the real us. Secondly, we meet God. Whether we believe in Him, He’s there watching and waiting for an opportune time to introduce Himself. Many ignore Him, His numerous attempts to reach us. Ultimately, we will meet Him, our Creator and Maker, at the judgment. Yes, He has the right and authority to judge us, for God created us. That’s His divine right as the King.
Everyday of our lives, God seeks to turn our eyes towards Him. His love outwardly expressed to us. His eyes dripping with tears over us — our choices, our sins, our failings. What is He seeking? Our attention, our thanksgiving, our adoration, our respect, our worship, and most deeply, our love. In Deuteronomy 11:1, NKJV, it says, “you shall love the LORD your God”. Where does the world, the flesh, and the Devil seek to lead us? The idol of I — the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I — where the world revolves around us. Self promotion, self aggrandizement, self actualization, self fulfillment, self sufficiency, and self love. It’s all about me, what I want, what I desire, what I think, what I need. Self. The idol of I.
Let us pray!
Posts
Comments
Post a Comment