Transcript:
We all have dreams and desires. For example, I would love to travel most of Europe, see the Grand Canyon, Write a best selling book and raise a great family.
I also have a deep desire to be close to God, but sometimes that desire gets pushed to the way side because of the other more tangible things in my life. If you too were honest, could you say the same thing?
Wanting to be closer to God is something that all of us should long for all of the time. Like a person who has not eaten in a while groans for a good meal, we too should deeply desire to feast on the presence of God. We must “desire the divine”. But what does that mean? What brings on this type of hunger? What causes us to desire God?
In the Bible in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, God commands the people to love Him. You’d think Israel, the people he was speaking to, would’ve felt as if God was forcing Himself upon them as He threatened their lives (and their kids lives and their grand kids lives and their great grand kids lives) if they loved anyone but Him.
But after all He had done for them, why would he have to ask them to love Him? Wouldn’t it be natural that they would love Him enough that nothing could sway their love?
Obviously not, because only 12 chapters later they couldn’t wait 40 days for the Lord before their love grew fickle and they were off making a golden calf to worship.
Also in Mark 12 we see Jesus reinforce the idea that we are not to love anyone beside the Lord. He cannot be compared to anyone or anything. He is the only one that can redeem us, forgive us, remove our guilt, bring us true joy… and the list goes on. And we are to love this God with all our heart, mind and strength.
God demands all of our love, but why would we give more love to anyone or anything else but Him?
Yes, He is a jealous lover, but rightfully so. Anything we start to adore more than Him is an idol in our lives and must be removed. Exodus 20 verse 5 says we are not to worship “Anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Sure, we may not go make literal statues of things and worship them, but metaphorically we take things we like and make them into a grand object of our affection. Even though Israel knew the consequences for doing this, they did it anyway. Even though we know the consequences for worshiping the other “gods” in our life, we do it anyway.
How could we be so foolish and selfish? Let’s pray now that God will remove the idols in our life and give us true devotion to Him.
We must pray, that God will give us the strength, understanding, and love, to respond to His jealousy with total devotion. With steadfast hearts and a lot of courage, we can have us the furry of Moses to destroy to dust the idols in our life.
We must mimic the faithfulness and devoted love of our God. When our understanding of commitment grows so with our knowledge and faith. How great would it be if God said to us, because of our pursuit of Him, the same thing Christ said to the scribe in Mark 12:34 – “You are not Far from the Kingdom of God.”
Keep pursuing God and desire the divine.
