We Become What We Worship

I recently watched the movie Hitch with Will Smith. In this movie Will plays a character named Alex Hitchens who is named in the movie the "date doctor." He meets with clients and helps them pursue the girl they are interested in by giving them pointers. At one point in the movie he is approached by a man named Vance Munsin. He is a very wealthy man and his goal is to sleep with a woman that he cant get off his mind. Hitch very quickly explains that he helps people who are actually wanting a relationship with the other person not simply to set up a one night stand. This sparks Vance to stand up and grab Alex arm and state, "you see this? This is what I am about, power suite, power tie, power steering. People can resist all they want but in the end they do what I want."

Here is the problem with Vance. He has worshipped power and pleasure which in the end have made him worthless and a people user. People are only good if they can get him those two things. He has spent his time pursuing power and pleasure and has himself become worthless. We become what we worship. In Jeremiah 2:5 God states that the people of Israel have pursued worthlessness and have themselves become worthless. Where we tend to have the problem is in the fact that power and pleasure are two things that people tend to want the most. Everyone loves to feel good and be in control.

How We Are Drawn Away

There are a couple of things that happen that turn our hearts from God to our idols. Jeremiah 2:13 ¹³"For My people have committed two evils:They have forsaken Me,The fountain of living waters,To hew for themselves cisterns,Broken cisterns

That can hold no water.

1. God becomes no longer good enough. We look at our desires and our wants and God pulls us from that or does not give them to us and so He becomes and obstacle and is no longer all we need.

2. We turn to what we think will give us those things. God is not giving you the money you want then you simply turn to what will. Money becomes God and you sacrifice family and church so that you can spend long hours at your job which is the temple worshipping the god of money. This seems to satisfy when the raise comes along or the promotion is thrown your way untill one night you go home and your wife is a shadow of the woman she used to be and your kids want nothing to do with you because all you care about is your money and your wife has had to take care of everything else by herself. Maybe your god is sex. God has given sex in the confines of marriage and within those boundaries it is beautiful, until suddenly your wife or husband is no longer good enough. So you turn to pornography or another partner and the room becomes a temple in which you worship the god of sex.

Often times when this happens we begin to ask God why we are in this wilderness and why He seems so far. Why is it that my family is gone and my kids want nothing to do with me? to which God responds, "did you not bring this on yourself?" Jeremiah 2:14-17 Often times we mistake God's silence for His consent.

How We Are Drawn Back

So how do we get back? We find our way back when he is our pursuit, when He is all sufficient, when we are consumed with Him then those idols fade away. There has to be a worship change. It is found in tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. It is in understanding that God is not an idol giver. He is far to concerned with our growth and our becoming more like Him then He is with what we think makes our life better. It is in trusting Him to provide for your needs. One of the things that I find very difficult is to work up a budget. The reason being that every month it changes. God has been very gracious to me and my wife and has given us more then we deserve. We have to understand that money is never given to us so that it can terminate on us. It was given to us by God to be turned around and used for His glory and the furtherance of the gospel. My money was not given to me so that I can keep it all to myself, it was given to me so that I could turn around and give it to help others. We have to understand that and when we do we can enjoy the gifts that God in His grace has given us rather then worship the gift instead of the giver.