“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3 (NIV)
Our God is great and glorious and it behooves us to approach Him with our deepest affections giving Him His rightful due. Seriously, every time in Scripture flesh encountered even an angel, itfelt prostrate before this great being as though a dead man – the sight so terrifying they trembled with fear. We know so very little of the immense glory of God as evidenced by our yawning listless prayers, our posture before Him, and our lack of concern to please Him over our own flesh. Dead hearted prayers and living a life san His Lordship are not suitable sacrifices for our living, glorious God, Amen? As He loves, He rightly desires and deserves our greatest love and our fervency in prayer is to Him as fire to incense bringing the sweet aroma before His throne. In all truth, cold prayers are no more prayers than a painting of a fire is fire. When it does not move our own hearts why would we think it would move God’s? The Prophet Elijah’s prayer brought down fire from heaven because his prayer carried fire up to heaven.
The world shows great zeal in the chasing after worldly goods and honors that are fleeting at best. Burning with passion in pursuit after them even though the exuberant joy is often lost once attained or soon thereafter because they never live us to what they promised. But heavenly joys are eternal and God has told us to store up our riches and treasures there where nothing can destroy them or no one can take them away from us. God wants us to quit panting after dust and fervently pursue the higher and the better. Seriously, what is the paste gem compared to the diamond? It is sickening and a shame that the zeal of Christians lags so far behind the world’s zealous pursuit of earthly gain particularly considering that the believers gain is eternal riches which will never perish, spoil or fade kept safely in heaven for us.
God desires first place in our lives for our good. When we passionately pursue earthy treasures, we begin desiring the created over the Creator. We seek what His Hand offers rather than Him. We are to love Him for Who He is with all our hearts and souls and minds. And He is Who He is all the time.
“This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.” Jeremiah 7:21-24 (NIV)