Who Do We Serve?
Are there areas of our life where we are more devoted to someone or something more than we are to the Lord? That is idolatry (Rev 21:8, AB). How would we know if we have such areas? We could start by examining where we spend that which is most precious to us – our time and money. Granted, a certain amount of time may be committed because we have a job, but are we more devoted to job success than to His Kingdom’s success? Do we use far more of our free time to do extra work for our job? Then maybe our job is an idol to us. Do we spend most of our free time in pursuit of leisure, with little or no thought of the Lord? Perhaps we are more devoted to leisure than to Him. And where do we spend our money? Do we spend more on leisure or status items (getaway properties, nice cars, vacations, entertainment etc.) than we do in our giving to His church and needy people? Then we ought to ponder whether leisure or status is really more important to us.
To what or whom do we primarily look for help? Our prayer life will tell us a lot about where our heart is on this. Is our first response to normally pray? Or do we turn to our spouse, to our friends, or to food or liquor? How can we honestly think we mainly rely on God for help when we aren’t habitually turning to Him first in prayer? We are trusting ourself more than Him when we aren’t regularly seeking His guidance for where He wants us to go, what He wants us to do, and when and how and with whom He wants His will to be done by us.
The fact that the apostle John warned Christians to keep ourself from idols means that we can become guilty of idolatry (1 Jn 5:21). This should be even more obvious when we consider that idolatry is a work of the flesh (Gal 5:20). It is a result of not being habitually prompted, directed, and empowered by God’s Spirit (Gal 5:16, AB). Are there areas where we are not regularly controlled by the Holy Spirit? How can there not be such areas if we infrequently ask for His guidance (Isa 30:1)? Let us do what the Bible commands us to do: Examine whether our faith seems to be genuine by seeing if it bears the appropriate fruit (2 Cor 13:5, AB).
Unending pleasure in the next life; training for godly pleasure in this one.