Is It Really All About Me?

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Is it really all about me?

We are very capable of creating our own gods. When we begin to worship them, we are opening a door not only to feed our flesh, but a door that many others might follow us through. Our self-created gods have one purpose. In the end, they make US god. As we worship them, our flesh gets to be in control and do what it wants, making us the god of our own lives. Life then becomes all about me, not the God I claim to worship.

There is a woman in the Old Testament who gave her silver to her son to create an ephod (Israel's priests already had one that they used in worship at the Tabernacle) and other household idols (teriphim that were worshiped to gain prosperity and guidance).  In the end, her son created graven and molten images that were idolatrous duplications of the priestly ephod and ark of the covenant.  He even hired a wicked Levitical priest to be the priest of his family.

You might ask how this story is relevant to us.  The answer is found in the historical account of what Israel was like in the days of the Judges.  This one sentence is repeated throughout the book of Judges:  "Every man did what was right in his own eyes."  Doing this very thing, this Jewish son re-created a religion that would be to his liking and his benefit, a religion in which he was in control.  He already knew what was right in God's eyes, and turned from it to what he deemed right.

This man led his family astray.  And he could not have known that the creation of his own god according to his desires would also lead one of the twelve tribes of Israel into idolatry as well.  The tribe of Dan discovered this ephod, fake image of the god, and the priest who absolved this family of any guilt, and the tribe of Dan stole them!  Now following this "god" instead of Jehovah, Dan is led astray and is not even mentioned in the twelve tribe in Revelation 7: 4-8.  By the same token, Eve would have had no idea that putting herself first would affect every other human being!  One person's sinfulness can have disastrous consequences in the lives of many.

What are the gods of your life?  What is it that you have created to protect you, bring pleasure to you, make you feel good, put you in the driver's seat, let you do what you want?  What is it that seems right in your eyes because it is not hurting anyone else?  Is it tobacco, alcohol, television, exercise, Facebook, pornography, working too much, material goods of any kind that you just can't get enough of, ministry?  Is it self-sufficiency that says you don't need anything or anybody, pride and arrogance, self-absorption, believing that everything is just fine in your life, false humility otherwise know as the "Eeyore syndrome"?  Every day we should be looking deeply within our hearts so that we might see the gods we have created.  Then we should be about the business of destroying them by surrendering to the only God who can.  

What is damaging our walk with God has the potential to damage others as well.  Who is your "collateral damage?"  Is it your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers, your friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Putting your flesh first is destructive to the kingdom of God and the work He wants to do before Christ returns.  

Think about it.  Ask God to show what your gods are.  Pray about it.  Surrender to the God Almighty, confessing your idolatry (agreeing with God that it is true).  Then stand up and walk in faith in the only God, as a witness to the whole world!