Who Is Your God?

From my morning reading

Who Is Your God?

Ecclesiastes 5:12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

I once heard a pastor comment that people today are as much idolaters as were the people of the Old Testament period. What makes it worse today is that they do not know that they are guilty of idolatry. Here's the crucial question: Before what altar do you worship? Is it money? Is it position? Is it sex, alcohol, drugs, materialism, success, or anything else than God? If it is, you are bowing before a pagan deity.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 is instructive. Solomon certainly was not talking merely about those who have money and those who do not, for that is too narrow and too small an interpretation of this verse. The laborers are the servants of God, namely, those who use their gifts in loving Him and in loving their neighbors. They can sleep at night in the assurance that they have worked for God and improved the quality of life for others. In contrast, the rich are those who use their gifts to indulge themselves.

The righteous have made God's love real. They have satisfied the hungers of neighbors who hurt and struggle and, in doing so, found peace and rest for themselves. The wicked "rich," on the other hand, have found only indigestion and heartburn in their excess. They live in fear of the thief, the beggar, or anyone who would challenge their position. They worship and are controlled by what they have. What about you? What is on your altar? Are you controlled by God or the idols of the world?

Dear Lord, please give me the wisdom and grace to worship and serve only You. Amen.

From GOD'S MAN

A Daily Devotional Guide to Christlike Character

Edited by: Don M. Aycock