Tag Archives: idolator

Revelation Song- Devo 4


Filled with wonder, 
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your Name
Jesus, Your Name is Power
Breath, and Living Water
Such a marvelous mystery

When was the last time you experienced something so awe-inspiring that it took your breath away? Did it have anything to do with Jesus? Did it have anything to do with the glory of God or with his perfect love for us? If not, what are you giving the honor to that you should be giving to God?

I am reading a book called “Desiring God- Meditations of a Christian Hedonist,” by John Piper. I don’t agree with everything he says but he does get this right: Most Christians are missing out on experiencing true joy that is found in Christ because we fail to worship Christ for who he is instead of just what he does for us or because we feel like enjoying God somehow lessens our worship of him. (That’s my 15 second summary of the 4 chapters I have read so far). So what do we find joy in? Our families, our material possessions, our friends? These are dangerously close to becoming idols if we allow ourselves to find more joy in them than we do God. These are good things, mind you and we should find a kind of  joy in these things because they are given to us by God but we need to have ultimate joy in Christ and if we are not, then we are missing a huge part of what it means to be in Christ! I admit that though I have at times experienced this kind of unadulterated joy in Christ that I sometimes lose my way and allow myself to find joy in other things alone. This is sin! It is idolatry! It is finding more joy in created things than in the Creator. I am, at times, an idolator. How about you?

There is no doubt that many of the things we believe involves an element of mystery. For example, how is Christ fully God and fully human at the same time? How is God 3 distinct persons yet inseparable? I won’t even pretend to have answers to these questions. It is true that we have to rely upon faith for some of our beliefs. But what marvelous mysteries they are! Even though we don’t understand them, we can delight in them. We can find joy and even comfort in that God is bigger and more complex than what our limited brains can handle. Only God can fully understand God. We can try to look at the evidences of our interactions with him and of his nature in the Bible. We can think about God until we are all thunk out but we will never fully understand God this side of heaven. That’s ok. There are lots of things we don’t fully understand but accept as fact like gravity, quantum physics, pregnancy, black holes, the human brain, etc. Why is it that people have such a hard time accepting things about God that we don’t fully understand?

I encourage you to start reading some of the Psalms this week (I got that from Piper, too). He encourages reading the Psalms as a way of getting our brain trained to praise God and to enjoy him in a fuller sense. I would love to hear some of your thoughts after you read a couple. Please feel free to comment below on what Psalm you read and your thoughts on it.

The End.