Day 13: Which God Do You Worship


 Read: Exodus 32

 Exodus 32 | NIV Bible | YouVersion


No sooner had the people of Israel met with God, received His laws, and promised to obey them, they then turned around and broke His law in spectacular form! And they were led by Moses’ own brother, Aaron, who had seen all of God’s miracles firsthand, from the staff turning into a snake to the ten plagues that decimated Egypt, to the parting of the Red Sea allowing them to pass through on dry land.  He had witnessed God providing water in the desert.  He had eaten the manna God sent from heaven each day.  Yet, he took the Israelites’ gold and fashioned it into a statue of a calf, then set up an altar before it for the people to worship.

One of our greatest temptations is to try to mold God into an image that is more to our liking.  We try to put God in a box, making it easier to ignore His commands when they’re inconvenient or unpleasant.  While we may not create an actual physical idol the way the Israelites did, we may be surprised to discover that the God we have been worshipping is not really God at all, but an idol we have created for our own convenience and satisfaction.  Perhaps we need to regularly examine our image of God to see if it matches the God of the Bible, or if we have shaped an image that suits us.  For example, do you find that the God you worship convicts you of sin and calls you to live a holy lifestyle?  Or is it easy to ignore some of those pesky little laws that set us apart from a godless world?  Can the people around you see that you are different, or do you blend right in and feel comfortable?  If we are truly worshipping the God of the Bible and obeying His commands, we will increasingly find ourselves living counter-culture, as more and more the world’s standards glorify sin and call what is right wrong.  Let us take the time in our desert place to examine ourselves and make sure that we are worshipping God and not self. If you find that you have put God in a box of your own making, ask Him to forgive you, to take His rightful place once again on the throne of your life.

 

Listen: You Are God Alone-Phillips, Craig, & Dean - YouTube

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