Psalm 8:3 When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place— 4 what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
Life was eternally pleasant and good until Adam and Eve chose to become hoarders of God’s glory and authority; their sin brought the stench and disgust of Satanic sewage into the domain and residence that God and man shared. Being evicted from the Garden of Eden was the only solution for mankind. The quest of man to find God has been in play from that moment of eviction until now. The spiritual warfare that has taken place over the centuries has spilled enough blood to fill a sea with human despair, and yet, none of that blood was seen as worthy to cleanse the sin that took place in the Garden of Eden. The Old Testament is full of people whose devotion to God was sacrificial beyond measure. Even though the sacrifices were enormous within the human framework and ability, none of the devotions and dedications of these martyrs met the perfection God needed to reconcile man to Himself. God needed a sacrifice that met the Godhead’s perfection. Isa. 45:5a I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.
The cry of the Apostle Paul’s heart was to know Christ intimately and understand the loving depth of suffering that Jesus took upon His being to save the souls of humanity. Phil. 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from out of dead. The Apostle Paul wanted to know the high cost that Jesus paid for our redemption. I am not sure if we could ever understand the depth of God’s salvation plan. If I could explain God the Father, then I would be making Him into man’s image, and He is infinitely beyond my explanation. At best, man tries to explain that God is love. What does that even mean? One thing I do know is that God is not an apotropaic talisman we rub to ward off evil or rub even harder to attain and acquire stuff. Our basic understanding of God lacks depth and willpower because our understanding can only develop with an authentic desire to know Him and seek Him with all our hearts. Rom. 3:11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. Few understand how to seek God, and therefore, our description of Him is uninspiring and dull, thus leading people to look elsewhere for a god to be devoted to.
I believe that multiple difficulties befall man because whatever god they have chosen to serve, they will be devoted to it, and whatever ‘it’ is, ‘it’ cannot deliver a person’s heart from sin. If golf is a person’s god, then their entire devotion to life will be for the hole-in-one. If partying is a person’s god, then the same devotion that should go towards God Almighty ends up going to the gods of entertainment and pleasure, while hoping for a lasting thrill. If food is a god, then those who worship food will have a devotion towards consumptive eating and, in most cases, gluttonous habits. Even though God said that we are not to have any other gods before Him, the heart and devotion of mankind look for entities to submit to and be devoted to. Ex. 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.
Jesus said that we could not serve God and the spirit of wealth (or any other false god) at the same time. Our devotion will become divided. The Lord did not say that we could not create wealth, because, as said in Deuteronomy 8:18, God gave us the power to gain wealth. Jesus pointed out that we would not be able to serve the spirit of wealth if we were devoted to God the Father. Matt. 6:24 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Most often, the ability to control wealth or any other idol comes to our understanding after we have developed a relationship with our heavenly Father.
We cannot give our devotion to the Lord our Saviour and also give it to another idol on the side. We cannot serve or give our full attention to two masters. Jesus is either Lord of all or not at all, and besides, God says that He is a jealous God. Ex. 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. Mankind has tried for centuries to have a little god, idol, or object of worship on the side to appease our inner desires for greatness. However, if we want to understand the love of God our Father, we will need to be devoted to Him, but often we are drawn away, where other gods steal our devotion for temporal rewards.
1Kings 18:21 Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word. This is the issue. When Elijah made the statement about choosing who the people would give their devotion to, the answered silence was defiant in itself. No decision is a decision. The faithfulness of God is without end and absolute, just as His love is absolute and seeks those who would seek Him. God’s instruction is not complicated. He says, “Draw close to Me, and I will draw close to you.” Our capacity to draw close to God is determined by our will to do so. My Heavenly Father is my devotion, and I make that choice willingly. Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thank you. Lord, for loving me and choosing me first. Thank you for giving me the free will to choose You.
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