Saturday, August 12, 2017

God Has a Question...

In 1 Kings 18 we find a story within a story. It is the story of the showdown between the prophets of Baal and Elijah up on Mt. Carmel. But there is an issue at stake that Elijah wanted to point out to the people. Look at verse 21, "Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing."

That’s a great question. Here are people who are supposed to be the chosen ones of God. They have a history with Him. But they’ve forgotten who He is and they have been distracted by idols. Sound like anyone else you know? Some things never change.

Many of us have grown up in the church. We have a history with God. We’ve been taught about Him since we were in Cradle Roll and Kindergarten. But as we go through our days now, we are distracted by other gods in our lives. The gods of money, fame or things. The gods of girlfriends or boyfriends. The god of lust. Or perhaps the gods of bitterness and un-forgiveness at an injustice done to us. Or maybe it is just your own intellect. Whatever it is that continually comes between you and God has become an idol. That pet sin. That secret desire. The continual craving for whatever it is. And God has a question for you.

“How long will you waver between two opinions?” There it is. You and I both have to answer that question. It’s showdown time. And we may answer “yes” to God with our mouth…and even our inner desire, but we keep a corner of our heart unyielded and locked tight, harboring our idol.

And as life gets busy and our quiet time with God gets pushed aside, our other idol suddenly gets the attention. We treasure it, coddle it, admire it, sometimes even loathe it, yet always we worship it.

Somehow these things that we’ve made to be our gods, get in the way of us worshipping the true God. We get so into our false god, our sin, that we end up worshipping the very things that will destroy us. We go back to what makes us comfortable, at least for a little while, and we forget that God has called us to be His people. We forget that we at one point in our lives promised that we would follow Him with our whole heart. And so the question comes from Mt. Carmel into our lives this today.

“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

Your choice. Your move.

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