Your Daily Devotional for August 4, 2007

 

August 4,  2007

 

 

Worshipping God

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

 

 

Exodus 20:4-5

 

 

USA Today produced an article a few years ago regarding a Baylor University poll on America's view of God. "I still believe in God," says Joanne Meehl, 56, of Barre, Massachusetts, who wrote a book in the mid-'90s called Recovering Catholics. "But to me God is the universe, not as small as a 'He' or a 'She' but bigger than all of that." She says, "People who do wrong are punished in this world, not in the next. This world is it."

 

Many people in our world have a distorted view of God. Some people believe there is no God while others believe that God is in everything! But we know that there is only one true God and that He desires that we worship only Him. Over the past few days, we have seen the first commandment—to place God first in our lives. Today we will see that God has commanded us to keep our worship of Him pure.

 

The first four commandments show us how to love God. They teach us how to keep our worship pure. One of the most unbelievable moments in the history of Israel was when Aaron led the children of Israel to create a golden calf. They had just been delivered from Egypt, and Moses was in the process of receiving the Ten Commandments from God! The commandment against idol worship was broken before God even gave the commandment!

 

There is something in the nature of many people that desires to create an image to represent their god. Over the years many people have tried to capture the glory of our Creator with an imaginative picture or representation of Him. All they can really do is diminish Him, and that is why God tells us not to make any graven image.

 

Because most of us aren't struggling with a desire to carve a piece of wood into an idol, at first, this command may seem rather simple and easy to obey, but its meaning goes even deeper than what it may appear. While some people build physical idols to worship, we must be careful not to build idols in our lives. We must make sure we do not worship our job, favorite sports team, or hobby more than we worship God. We must make sure our worship of God is without reservation. We must worship Him only for He deserves all glory, honor, and praise! Over the next few days we will see how we can keep our worship of God pure.

 

Is your worship of God pure? Think of your personal time with God right now. What in your life is hindering you from solely worshipping Him? What is distracting you from dedicating time each day to worshipping Him? We must not let the things of this world become idols in our lives. Spend time with God right now and ask Him to help you worship only Him. Spend time worshipping Him today!

 

Daily Bible Reading

Psalm 66-67 • Romans 7

 

 

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