“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”
Memory verse: Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. 1John 5:21
There are so many blessings in stock for believers! “Oh yes, I know that” is what some believers will and may say as a response to that statement but not only do some believers not know what those blessings are, they also are unaware of how to absorb them into their lives let alone their generations. The bible talks about some blessing which are tailored to individuals but interestingly there are some blessings which extend to a thousand generations.
Can my generation really be blessed or cursed through me? Oh wow, so my actions and reactions to the things of God can endanger four generations or extend blessing to a thousand? The bible gives examples of both instances as we see in the life of Abraham. Abraham’s obedience to God means that generations after him are still able to lay claims on the promises of God while in another instance when king Solomon decided to go against the words of the Lord, his behavior attracted punishment not just for him but for his generation. “So now the Lord said to him, “Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my decrees, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.”1Kings 11:11-12.
The question to ask yourself this morning is “What is taking the place of God in my life?” While the obvious answer we may scream out is “absolutely nothing” it is good to take a deep breath and really some quality time to think this questions through and self-reflect. This will help us set our priorities straight, helping us to start operating and moving in the right direction towards making a change. There are two types of idols to look out for in our current world that could easily cause a change of focus 1. Pleasure 2. Power.
The search for pleasure and powers has dominated a lot of lives and we see this thirst from the very beginning. Eve enjoyed the pleasure of having a conversation with the serpent and she wanted the power to know between good and bad. She therefore she replaced her dependency on God which led to the fall of man Genesis 3: 1-6.
Idol’s in whatever form they come (Money, bad habits, unhealthy relationship, certain lifestyle, success e.tc.) are all geared towards robing you of your time and slowly weakening you spiritually until they lead to death. Having all those things are in itself not bad but when we begin to give them glory for the things God can do and has done then we have begun idolising them.
These days we don’t physically carve wooden or golden images or structures but when our heart idolise things, they become morden idols in our current world. Apostle Paul warns us to flee from such, 1 Corinthian 10:14.
PRAYERS:
- Father I thank you for another wonderful day
- Thank you for your grace and favor over my life
- Help me Lord from today to focus solely on you and not worship idols subconsciously or unconsciously
- Help me to rid of everything which represents idols in my life
- Forgive me of all my shortcomings O Lord and let your mercy prevail over judgement
- Thank you Lord for answers to prayers, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
