Have you ever known someone who thought so highly of themselves that they felt they were above everyone else? Someone who wouldn’t listen, because, in their mind, they already had all the answers. I meet them often. It is not hard to get someone to listen when you are telling them who has the best deals in town, or where the best schools are for their children. They’ll even listen when you tell them the facts about historical events in the country they live in, but change the conversation to spiritual things and they already have it figured out.
In Exodus 20:3 God proclaims, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The real meaning is no other gods, period, none after or before. In Matthew 22:37-38, Jesus declares that God is to be loved with everything about us. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
Jesus makes it clear that God is to be our only priority. When we live our life to please him in all we do, everything we do is done with him in mind. We go to the grocery store, see someone, and wonder if they are a Christian. We buy fattening foods and think about what it will do to this temple He dwells in. We see someone that needs help and the compassion of Christ is extended through us. I could continue to relate day-to-day activities to our relationship with Christ, but I think you get the picture.
I Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
When speaking with people about God, most always their side of the conversation starts with “I think.” Their opinion seems to be their governing factor. Since we are taught everyone has a right to their own opinion, they expect their opinion to be accepted as equal to anything anyone else says. While it is true that opinions are equal, that does not make an opinion truth! I can believe that 2 plus 2 equals 6. I can convince myself that it is true and others just don’t understand where I am coming from, but that doesn’t change the fact that 2 plus 2 equals 4.
So many have taken this process of thinking into their relationship with God and have convinced themselves they are correct. Their god is one of their own making. It is based on what they think, not what God says. While this process of thinking may satisfy those who are speaking, and even, possibly, those who are listening, it doesn’t satisfy the God of the Bible.
When you use your opinions to govern your life you have made yourself your own god! Our lives are to be lived by truth, not opinion. God has all the answers to life in His word if we will seek it. Though there will be times that the answers don’t flow freely out of His word, we are still to trust He is in control, and acting on our behalf. Living a life where the God of Heaven is on the throne of our life requires studying the Word, prayer, and obedience.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Have you placed your own opinion and thinking above that of the Bible? Do you read passages and think they don’t matter, or that they don’t apply to you? Do you live the way you want to and make the excuse “God understands?” In one sense you are right, He does understand. He understands that you would rather please yourself than please Him. He understands that you have dethroned Him in your life. However, make no mistake, He is still God. He is still on the throne and He cannot be removed from being the Master of everything. One day all will bow and proclaim Him as Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Some will proclaim that, and because they have lived it they will be welcomed into Heaven. Others will proclaim it, but with regret that will last forever, as they are cast into Hell. He is God and will forever be God. Have you allowed Him to be your God?
Romans 14:11-12 “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. “
