Created to Worship
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“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25)
Human beings were created to worship. Unfortunately, we are easily misled into worshiping men who were created rather than our Creator, God Almighty. We see this in secular culture, as people adore and try to emulate sports heroes, movie stars or billionaires. But we also see it in the Christian community, when we exalt Bible teachers or evangelists, praising and worshiping them rather than the God who gave them their abilities.
Therefore, as both followers and leaders, we must guard against worshiping men or allowing people to worship us. The New Testament gives examples of our propensity to worship men:
- “As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. ‘Stand up,’ he said, ‘I am only a man myself. (Acts 10:25, 26)
- “When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ …But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd shouting: ‘Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you.’” (Acts 14:11, 14-15)
We are also told the dangers of not giving God His rightful place:
“They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not a man.’ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (Acts 12:22, 23)
Even the apostle John was tempted to worship a created being:
“And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, ‘Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!’” (Revelation 22:8, 9)
Holy God, You alone are worthy of our worship. May I never worship anyone but You, nor allow anyone to worship me. Amen
Questions: Why are we so prone to worship men? When are you tempted to allow others to worship you?
4 Responses to “Created to Worship”
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Pam, what you say is so true: our witness and testimony does need to be about the Lord and not about us! Like K, I also fell prey to worshipping and fearing man more than God, and it led to my losing who I was due to the desperate desire to please others.
I believe we are so prone to worship men because we fear rejection, and out of our own pride, we long for the approval of others. Unfortunately, it can seem so much easier to “feel” the approval of men than of God, as we cannot immediately “see” God in the same way we can view man. However, this is part of the trap that comes with our need for immediate gratification. Learning to wait for our needs and wants to be met is so much more rewarding, and when we discover the ability to do for others without being appreciated right away, then we are well on our way to being able to seek above all else the Kingdom of heaven and His righteousness – and worshipping God is so much more rewarding than worshipping anyone on earth, both now and for eternity!
Thank you for such a wonderful article, Suzanne. Your words are truly a blessing to me.
Great witness. I have been there and reaped the disasterous results of worshiping man before God.
God was very gentle with me and has captured my full attention forever. I can do nothing without Him.
Thanks for the well written article.
This is very true. What we value is what we think about the most and speak about the most and therefore often becoming what we worship. Our responsiblity and witness really depends on focusing others attention on the one worthy of complete devotion and that is God alone. My witness or testimony should be what God has done..not about what I have done.
Dear Suzanne,
I love the ‘truth’ that you have revealed in this devotional today. Years ago, when I first received Christ into my heart I ‘looked’ up to pastors and preachers not realizing what I was doing. It was not until I grew in more understanding of God’s Word that I was to focus on HIM above all and not mere man/woman. I thank God that His Spirit shined truth in this area and from that day forward, I realized that my trust and worship is in God and God alone! Sadly, many people worship the person in the pulpit verses God and maybe that is why He arranges to have some of them fall off their pedestals to show that man is not perfect and we are only to look up to our perfect God in this imperfect world.