Remember Who You Worship

Food prices continue to rise and, like most of you, my family has been limiting unnecessary spending.  So, when my husband gave me $5 and told me to buy myself a special latte at our favorite coffee shop, it was a sacrifice for him and a special treat for me. On my way home, sipping on my grande-matcha-green-tea-latte made with soy milk, I spilled it.  There went my special treat, and not only that, but there went my afternoon which would now be spent scrubbing the carpet of my car (y’all, matcha stains!).   If I had reacted in my flesh then my reaction would have gone something like this, “I can’t believe that just happened! Why do these things keep happening to me? What a bad day.  Now I’m in a bad mood.” But the Lord has been convicting me of my reactions lately. I have a slight tendency to overreact (everyone who knows me just burst out laughing), but recently God has been teaching me to control my reactions by remembering who I worship. So, rather than groan and gripe about my now half empty cup, I remembered I do not worship coffee (or even matcha-green-tea-lattes made with soy).  And since I do not worship it, this means I do not find my joy, or satisfaction, or anything else in it. Therefore, its loss has no power to provoke me into a sinful reaction. 

A spilled latte is a humorous example I know, but please don’t think I’m making light of the painful circumstances you may currently be experiencing in your life. No matter how painful those circumstances, the truth still applies.  Paul said, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Recently, someone I love said something hurtful to me. My initial response was, “Why do they think that about me? Why don’t they like me? What am I doing wrong?” I was spiraling down a very sinful thought pattern, but then God reminded me that I do not worship that person, I worship God. I looked at that person and, in my head, I said, “You are not my idol.” The sinful thought pattern broke. I do not worship that person; their words, though hurtful, do not have the power to shake me. I worship God; and God’s opinion of me doesn’t change.  When He looks at me it’s Christ’s righteousness He sees (2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 3:27). Christ doesn’t change and therefore neither does God’s opinion of me. If you are making the people or things in your life into idols, then your expectations of them are unattainable.  They will never satisfy you; they cannot satisfy you, only God can.  When I silently reminded myself that this person was not my idol, it released the ridiculous expectations of perfection I had set up for them. Was what they said hurtful?  Yes, but, as my sister says, we must learn to acknowledge the hurt and overlook the offense (Proverbs 19:11).  We can do this by keeping people and God in their proper places in our hearts, by remembering we worship God.

Another example of this is in Proverbs 19:23 which says, “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied.”  We who believe, fear God; we worship God alone, and therefore, we rest satisfied.  But Proverbs 19:23 goes on to say, “he will not be visited by harm.”  Does this mean if we truly worship God then nothing bad will happen to us on this earth?  Of course not.  Jesus tells us in John 16:33 that in this world we are going to have trouble, but we can take heart because He has overcome the world and in Him we have peace.  Those who worship the Lord are not shaken by the trouble in their lives.  Their troubles have no power over them because in Christ they have life and are satisfied (Psalm 16).  He is the source of my pleasure (Psalm 16:11).  He is the source of my love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  He is the source of my every good thing (James 1:17).  He is the source of my satisfaction (John 4:14, Psalm 19:23). Everything I am, is because of everything He is; and everything He is has not changed just because I spilled my latte or because someone said something hurtful to me.  So even when something bad does happen in life, it shouldn’t provoke me into a sinful reaction, but rather, I should put everything into perspective with Christ. 

The next time someone hurts you, something breaks, something goes wrong, look at that person or thing and say, “You are not my idol.” Remember Who you worship (Exodus 20:3-6, 1 John 5:21).  Like Paul, remember that you know the secret of being content in every situation, and the secret is Christ (Philippians 4:11-13).  Psalm 16 says “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You.’ The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.  I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.   You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:2,4,8,9, and 11).  Your everything is in Christ and no matter what circumstances arise, Christ has not changed (Hebrews 13:8), so you will not be shaken (Psalm 16) — even if you spill your coffee.

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*All Bible quotations are taken from the ESV unless otherwise stated.