How to Know What You're Really Worshiping
By Aaron D’Anthony Brown
Bible Reading
“Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.” - Titus 2:7-8
Who Is Your Role Model?
I’ve long been under the impression that we all worship something. People, money, ideas. If you’re wondering what you worship, then look at where you spend most of your time. As Christians, we’re called to worship God, and only God. Still, being the sinful humans that we are, there’s a natural inclination to stray away from Him sometimes. We leave God to worship other things that cast influence on us. In that influence, we should also make another realization, we’re not just always partaking in the act of worship, we are also always learning.
Think about it. When we worship God, we are learning from Him. Prayer, fellowship, reading the Bible, all of this teaches us how to live out His will. We mature and gain wisdom as we hopefully become more like Christ. Jesus is the role model.
However, if you don’t know the Lord or have grown idle in your faith, then who fills that space? Something has to if you want to derive purpose from life. Even if you are active in your faith, sin presents an ever-ready disconnect between us and God. We, too, face the threat of losing sight of Him and propping someone or something else up, even if temporarily.
The simple truth that every Christian should heed is that without Christ as our role model, we start to resemble the world. Our culture is constantly talking to us through what we see on television or the music we listen to. Can you think of one recent example of a show or movie from Hollywood that portrayed Christianity in a positive way? Yet, how many shows or movies have you seen where our faith is shown as just the opposite?
The world wants us to believe that they have the answers, that their way is not just better, but right. If we’re not careful, not only will we forget who we ought to be following, but we will substitute Him for something lesser, something unrighteous.
Intersecting Faith & Life:
Today, I’m willing to say that Jesus Christ is my role model. Though, if I’m being honest, I know that there are days when I don’t want to see Him. Days when I want to go my own way, do my own thing, pretending that I know better. Can you relate?
Once we snap back to reality, we need to ensure Jesus is our role model by doing the following:
Reexamine Your Life
Introspection is a must if you want to follow Christ. If we’re always learning, then we need to reflect on the lessons of old and new. Reflection is how we determine which ideas we hold are accurate, true, and which are not. Hopefully, the way you think today is more mature than how you thought five years ago or ten years ago. Continue to examine yourself for the purpose of finding truth. The closer to truth we are, the closer to Jesus we are.
Identify Any Idols
As we examine ourselves, naturally, we are going to spot sin, even idols. Once you’ve spotted them, weed them out. Replace the bad with God. How exactly do you do that? You turn to your role-model, Christ. Look at how He lived and seek to imitate that.
Pursue God
How foolish are we to ever think that God doesn’t want a relationship? He loved us before we loved Him, before we even loved ourselves (1 John 4:19). The world doesn’t love us unconditionally, if at all. Yet, the world is always trying to preach something to us. Telling us what’s right and what’s wrong. Well, God wants to do the same, only His love is unconditional. We ought to pursue Him to the best of our ability, knowing that when we do, we will look more and more like His son. Likewise, we resemble the world less and less, throwing away all evidence of unrighteousness that holds us back.
Further Reading:
1 Corinthians 11:1
Matthew 5:16
Photo Credit: ©Thinkstock/chaunpis
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