Taking the Place of God in Your Life

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Scripture:
1John 5:21   Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Observation:

John’s entire epistle is a reminder about the one, true God and understanding this in light of Jesus. With great affection he tells his followers, his little children, to keep themselves from idols. He wants them to bear in mind that worship belongs to God alone and that they are to guard themselves “against everything which occupies the place due to God.” (Vincent) Nothing false is to take the place of God in the lives of Jesus’ followers.

Application:

The truth has been made clear to us. We know who Jesus is — and now we are to decide what we will do with that information.

John Wesley encourages us to take this understanding and live a life in which we sink deeply into the love of Christ. We are to desire nothing more than him, nothing more than knowing and living in service to God. Evil is to be avoided as all focus is placed on God in our lives.

It’s a very simple little line. We are God’s dearly loved little children and we are susceptible to distractions. Life comes at us with a powerful ability to turn us back to idols.

Today the stock market will tumble wildly. No one really knows what tomorrow holds. But God is still on the throne. The things of the world are not our idols and nor should they take the place of God in our lives.

Little children — dear friends. The world is rough. Jesus is not. Let God remain God in the midst of all the turmoil. “Keep yourselves from idols.”

Prayer:

Lord, please help me to live faithfully as your child today.  Amen.


Thank you to Nazarene Publishing House and Keri Mitchell for helping to create and publish Reflecting the Image. This is not a devotional book, but rather a collection of thoughts and stories which lead us in the direction of reflecting Christ. Click on the image to take you to the NPH bookstore.The book is also available in Kindle format on Amazon.com.



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