You go God!

There is a prevalent notion being indoctrinated in the hearts and minds of people today that we each possess deep inside of us some sort of power and purpose that would revolutionize our lives, if we could just tap into it. The indoctrination is by no means a subtle one. Television, magazines, and “self-help” (an oxymoron)  books, all encourage us to get in touch with ourselves, pamper ourselves, and look out for ourselves. We all just need cheerleaders to pump us up and make a big deal of us.Talk show hosts become spiritual gurus, who unashamedly encourage Self-Worship. “You go girl.”

The problem is that God did not make us to worship ourselves, but to worship Him. Because of this fact, we will never find purpose and contentment with worshiping ourselves.

We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone’s self esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees. This not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savor God– and savoring Him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of His presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors. (John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life.)

We are all worshipers. It is what we were made for. The secret to finding purpose and joy in life lies in the object of our worship. There is no room for both ourselves and God on the throne. Make room for the King.

Friend of God

In the course of our lives we will each be called many things. Student, son, daughter, father, mother, employee, boss, husband, wife, American, and Christian are a few of the examples. Perhaps the most amazing and joyful thing that anyone could be called is “friend of God.” This is the exciting reality for those who follow Christ.

Greater love has no one than this; that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:13-15

It is difficult to imagine that the sovereign and holy creator of everything would go to so much trouble in order to call fallen sinners “friend”. Christ showed the greatest love imaginable by laying down his life for His friends. Accepting the salvation that is available to us because of this awesome display of love is not a sacrifice, but the only rationale response that we could have to such love. Having friends in high places certainly has its rewards.