"But you thought your fame and beauty were your own. So you gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was theirs for the asking. You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you played the prostitute. Unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen?!"
Ezekiel 16:15-17
When things in life are going well it is so easy to forget the hard times. When life is going our way we often don't take time to put God first, and we pack away the memories of when He provided for our every need. We forget all the desperation we once had and the endless nights of prayer and pleadings. Yes, unfortunately, when things are going well in life we tend to ride the wave and leave God sitting on the beach. Even worse we tend to take all the things He had supplied thus far and make them our own. We take credit for the way things are going, we use His resources for our advancement, but we never stop to thank Him. We turn His blessings into our gods. Those things He provided for our betterment then become the focus of our life. Money to get us by one week becomes the goal for our whole existence. The job you needed to keep your family secure in a safe home now becomes the only thing you wake up for every day. That child you prayed for years to conceive then becomes your only reason for living. We, just like Judah, use the lovely things God gives us and make shrines for idols to whom we give ourselves away and deny the one true God.
It's easy to see this occur in other people's lives. We can look back in the bible and find many examples of people begging for God's help only to take credit for all that they had or to put their trust in gods instead of the One True God. Friends, unfortunately, this happens to us all. We take for granted our God who is always there for us. We forget so easily the saving He did, and the answered prayer He provided. We forget that all we have is from Him and we start to trust in the tangibles. We trust in the things we can see and feel. We trust in the things that we think we have control over. We trust in ourselves and others instead of God who got us where we are and has a plan for where we are going. We sell ourselves to little gods such as sex, alcohol, drugs, jobs, children, money, fame, and entertainment. We take our blessings from God and turn them into idols. We defile our blessings by placing them on our idols, improving our idols, and putting them before God. We forget where they came from and start to even take the credit for having them.
Friends, take time today to look back on your prayers from months or years past. Lay out all your blessings and see where they lay today. Are you give God the credit for where you are? Are you praising God for the things you have, and are you still placing Him first in your life? Have you handed over your blessings to your idols, or are you grounded in God? My prayer today is for us all to step back and take a big picture of where we came from and where we are headed. All along the way we should see God's blessings...................Dear God if we aren't already praising you and thanking you for all you do in our lives please help us start today. We wish to lay down our pride and our idols to trust in the One True God. Show us where we place too much trust and the things that take first priority over you, and help us to change our ways. God we love you and we want you to be the God of our life. Thank you for waiting patiently and for never giving up on us. We are excited to refocus our lives to put you first. In Jesus' Name......amen
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