Time is a funny thing. God created it with purpose and intent, and yet He is still not subject to it. How cool is that? An infinite God that is beyond comprehension and understanding controls the fabric of time. It’s easy to think that we are in charge of the clock that is our own lives; how foolish. This garden we are living in today does not hold a candlestick to Eden. The world is filled with hatred, sinfulness, dissatisfaction, and a seeking that does not strive to achieve Christ’s righteousness. I am part of it, I succumb to it. In the midst of my own desire for identity, power, and me, I am reminded of my place and my purpose. His Gospel, and my duty to fulfill that gives me the utmost sense of comfort and drive. I would argue that most believers feel the same, and are confident in the God that is writing similar stories in their lives; but the question is, why? Why do we turn away from Him? Why do we seek the things of this world? Why is His truth not good enough for me in times of doubt and temptation? Why do I idolize things over Him? Why?

God’s timing is better than anything I could ever desire for myself.

The noise of the world gets in the way, it’s a part of this story that God is indeed writing. Lucky for us, He is the sole author, and gives us exactly what we need to pull us through. Something that God has manifested in my walk recently is how to properly deal with the fleshly gravitation to idols of this world. Be that sports, passions, work, or even in some sense ministry, it is easy to begin to idolize things of the world and lose focus of where glory is due, and who is in charge.

How similar is our story to that of Moses’ in Exodus? The noise of this world seems to have us in a consistent state of wandering, and seeking. I doubt that any of us are worshiping gods of cast metal, but this world does still actively choose to idolize things over our Lord. He describes His distaste with that in Exodus:

“You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you rake of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods. You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.”

Exodus 34:13-17

Whoa. The Bible says whore? Again, I don’t think we are worshiping gods of cast metal today, but what are we worshiping in place of those? Thanks be to Christ, that now we ourselves get to be Moses, and have unfettered access to the Father Himself, and experience intimacy with Him. Through Christ, now the Spirit Tabernacles within us, and it’s our duty to abide in the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, which I guarantee you, will not actively lead you to idolizing things other than the Lord. My question is what are you seeking? What are you idolizing? If your answers are anything but Jesus, then I would challenge you to pray for our Lord to reveal to you what exactly it is that you need to focus on.

For me, it’s been a couple of things that I have actively idolized; one of those being friendship.

Friendship. Anybody who knows anything about my story knows how touchy this subject is to me. I am confident in a God that has crafted me in a manner that has deep passion for loving others and living in community with others. I have an ability to connect with people, to meet them where they are at, and to encourage them from that point. Only in the past year or so have I fully grasped that this gift isn’t mine, but God’s. He works through me in this, and it is clear that I can do nothing! What an honor, though, to be able to be actively used by Him to further His Gospel. This is what I needed to realize, and God brought me to that point by breaking me in a few different ways. Loneliness was and is my greatest fear; it is a dark and scary place. Through my college years where I actively chose a lonely path that honored God better than the one had I chosen to take part in stereotypical college affairs, I became content with this. When experiencing working in ministry for the first time, I was in complete culture shock. Who are all of these people and where have they been all of my life? I finally felt a sense of belonging. Quickly I began to idolize that. Still to this day I am quick to forget my purpose in being able to make friendships, and in being able to be a relational person, and that is for the honor and glory of the Father. I seek gratification for me, and friendship to suffice my own need, when in reality my focus should be on completing with excellence what God has set out in front of me, and not worrying about everything else on the side. He knows my heart, and He shows Himself to me in new and amazing ways each day. Friendship and communion with Christ is more than enough for my own sanctification and sustenance in my life, which is only a small snippet in the grand story that He is authoring. First, I am His:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

The blessing of friendship is God ordained, and I am grateful to the Father that His intent was for it to be enjoyable to man. The caveat that I didn’t catch was that friendship and community with others is not to be idolized or prioritized over friendship and communion with Him. I’m eternally grateful to all of the friends in my life that have pointed me to God, and have either directly or indirectly gotten me to this understanding of reliance, dependability, and sustenance being derived solely from God. He has blessed me with all of you. It was in His timing that I came to Him, came to friendship, and came to this realization; His grand design is far better than anything we could ever imagine. His timing is better than mine.

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”

Philippians 3:20-21

What are you idolizing, and how can you replace that with a greater desire for God?