You Who?: Why You Matter and How to Deal with It by Rachel Jankovic

Author:Rachel Jankovic [Jankovic, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canon Press
Published: 2019-01-15T08:00:00+00:00

14

Asking for Less

Psalm 115 moves from the glory OF God to the subject of worshiping idols. They have eyes, it says, but cannot see. They have mouths, but cannot speak. They are not the powerful gods that the maker of them hopes they will be. There is nothing there but emptiness. “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (v. 8, niv).

This is a shattering blow to idolatry. It is repeated in various ways throughout Scripture. Hosea 9:10 says it this way: “They became an abomination like the thing they loved.” Those who make the gods of emptiness will themselves be empty. Trusting in a god that is nothing more than an illusion will only make you feel like and become an illusion. Do you feel like you have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, a mouth but cannot taste? Haven’t you heard people describe their own depression or anxiety or purposelessness in this way? It is a recurring theme of almost everyone’s nightmare: the inability to be heard, run, or see.

The only answer is that you must turn to the Living God. You are already on your knees, but it might not be in front of the right altar. Your god is not sufficient. Reorient yourself to worshiping the Almighty God, and you will be transformed.

When we faithfully worship the Living God, what do we become like? We become more like Him. As we imitate Christ, we become more Christlike. This is the goal of sanctification and the Christian walk. But there is more to it than that.

Remember that man is made in the image of God. God made man out of dirt and His own breath. We are His. And when we worship Him rightly, we become more and more like Him. We become more and more like the image we were made to reflect. So it is in our worship of God that we are made ever more like Him, and consequently ever more like our true selves. This was the intended plan.

Because we are made in the image of God, it is not difficult to see that increasing in our knowledge of Him is increasing in our understanding of our selves. How do we become more and more like Him? Through worship we obey Him, and through our obedience, we worship Him. It follows that those same things, obedience and worship, make us more and more like ourselves. Obey God to be yourself. Worship God to find yourself. This is the plain teaching of Scripture, which is what makes it so strange that many Christians have never been taught this basic truth.

As a culture we love the idea of a superfood. Tell us about the food that does so much more than all the other foods! We want that kind of high-octane fuel that will power us up to much more energetic living. Think of obedience the same way—it is the superfood of the believer. When

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