Acts 17:22-25 (NIV) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
Yesterday we acknowledged the need for our Savior especially among those family and friends who have not yet made their own decisions. We continue to lift those precious ones up to the Lord in prayer, that their hearts might be opened and responsive to his call.
Today we skip over a few verses for a peak at what Paul has to say concerning a much larger population than households. We find Paul in Athens and his message is clear. (You’ve got a lot of churches, but they are not all worshiping the one true God.) I view the statement, “I see that in every way you are very religious,” as quite an indictment. Here was a city that had so many gods to worship that they even included a place for the possibility of any god not yet discovered.
What a mess! Yet the heart of the problem then was not any different than it is now—that man so often worships the things he makes—money, wealth, accumulation of goods, etc. Our pride, our devotion, our priority becomes centered on almost any diversion to worship of Almighty God who is not made, but who is the Maker of all things. When we place our all our time, energy, efforts, thoughts, and devotion on those things which are man-made, then we miss the point of worship.
We might even take this down to the level of all the churches themselves, not only the physical churches in our own cities, but the online ones as well. Do we place more emphasis on the order of service, the wow-factor of technology and big screens, routines and rituals, the production factor—all those man-made things that make sure our customers are sufficiently entertained enough to keep their memberships in place? How much of Sunday worship is truly devoted to Almighty God—the One who doesn’t need all that pomp and circumstance—the One who just needs a loyal and devoted people to love him in return for all he has done for us? Are we the ones who are trying to be very religious in every way? Have we forgotten how to simply open the doors and be a church? We must ask ourselves where our priorities stand.
Gracious Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the reminder in today’s text that you are the Creator of all that is. Forgive us when we become so earthly oriented that we forget who you are. We turn our hearts to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.
The devotional Very Religious in Every Way appeared first on Write From My Heart at writefrommyheartblog.blogspot.com
email: Dotty Willmon, writefrommyheartblog@gmail.com
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