“THE PROCESS IS THE END. FOR IT IS THE PROCESS THAT IS GLORIFYING TO GOD.” --Oswald Chambers

"This life therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal, but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed." --Martin Luther

Thursday, May 24, 2007

DEALING WITH MY IDOLATRY

“He who loves father & mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” Matthew 10:37a-38

A couple of years ago I was deeply convicted of this verse, and I have wrestled with this verse several times since the Lord really got a hold of my life. I began to realize that I cared more what my dad thought then what God thought. My desire has pretty much always been to please my dad and make him proud, with absolutely no thought of my Heavenly Father. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to make your parents proud. But I had put my dad on a throne that he had no place being on. God shares His throne with no one. I had made my dad an idol, and that is sin. I was convicted of that idolatry and I repented of it. By God’s grace and His Spirit, I have not put my dad back on that pedestal. It has not been easy. I love my dad and I still want to make him proud. Now when something comes up and I have a decision to make, first I must ask will this make my Heavenly Father proud? Will this please Him and fulfill His desires? And in doing that I believe I do honor my dad and how he raised me to love the Lord and follow His word. Later on in Matthew Peter asks, “we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” (Matt. 19:27) In Matthew 19:29 Jesus answers, “And everyone who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for my name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.” When reading one night Kel and I came across this verse while looking for something else. Neither she nor I had ever noticed the “farms” in the verse. I read it over and over. I felt God was speaking to me and my family. Sacrifices made for the sake of Christ will be rewarded. It doesn’t say where that reward will come; I pray it is in heaven. The smallest reward given in heaven will be greater than the largest reward that could be given on earth, and any reward given on earth will pass away, but a heavenly reward is for eternity.

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