Step Down From the Throne

I have been reading through the book of Joshua and Judges and I keep seeing this theme which is through out the entire Old Testament of how God is a jealous God. The first and most broken commandment in the Old Testament is "You shall have no other gods before me." The Israelites break this commandment over and over again. God rescues them again and provides for them endlessly; yet again they choose to worship other gods. While reading it I keep yelling in my mind at the Israelites, "Are you that stupid!? How could you forget that God has brought you out of slavery and performed miracle after miracle to save your butts!" I closed my Bible and took care of my breakfast dishes while laughing at how dumb the Israelites were.

Call me crazy but that's when I heard this in my head...

"You really think you are that different than the Israelites?"

Well, I don't worship other gods. I mean how does this really apply today? I guess some people have other religions and stuff. And of course people worship money, drugs, alcohol, sex, and material goods. Honestly God, I don't worship stuff like that. So how does this apply?

"Do you  think you worship yourself?"

Not really. I don't bow down to myself or make golden statues of myself and pray to them. So no. Definitely not. I'm good really... I am off the hook right?

"Do you trust I am in complete control or do you mainly trust yourself or try to control your life and situations around you?"

"I guess I say I trust you but in reality I still want to take matters into my own hands. So in a sense I guess I do try to play the role of a god. Hmmm never thought of that before."

And this is when a HUGE light bulb went off in my brain. How did I not see it before? It's a huge problem across the map! But I think especially in today's culture and generation we are blinded to this problem. We are taught to make ourselves look exceptional on resumes and college applications. We paint an image and become self absorbed in the world of facebook and social medias. With any and all information accessible at our fingertips we can answer most questions and inquiries on our own through researching Google. Our world is obsessed with what is safe and what is easy in an effort to provide our own sense of security and control. I am not saying all this stuff is bad, but it becomes dangerous when we become self absorbed in who we are and what we are capable of instead of giving all the glory to our creator.  In a sense we create ourselves into mini-gods. We are in a race to climb ladders of power and yelling once we reached the top... "Look at me! Look what I have done and what I have accomplished!" Then we believe we are entitled to respect, money, power, etc. as we keep climbing the throne to put ourselves in the god chair. We forget that every breath we breathe is because God allows us to do so.

Even when we are doing things in the name of God we tend to put ourselves on the throne. Christians do this all the time praying selfish prayers instead of asking God His will or when we step into leadership positions to get across our own agenda for the church. Or we pull the God card by getting others to think the decisions we are making are in God's will when in reality we are just to scared to take a leap of faith. Then as we examine our lives we have the nerve to say... No, I don't have other gods.


Dear Lord, forgive us for sitting in your throne. Forgive us for thinking we deserve glory for our own accomplishments. Forgive us for making ourselves an idol by being overly self-absorbed and completely ignoring you. Help us to remember that each day is a gift and we wake up each morning because you allow us to do so. We give you all the thanks, praise, and glory.

Amen.