1 OCT 23 Sunday: A Closer Walk Devotional
“They offered sacrifices on all the hilltops, just like the nations the Lord had driven from the land ahead of them. So the people of Israel had done many evil things, arousing the Lord’s anger.” 2 Kings 17:11
We can watch the news, television shows, or even social media and see what the world is focused on. We see the worship of self, nature, and the evils birthed from it. As believers, we are struck by the evil that is present in the culture in which we live. You can go anywhere on the earth and in any culture and see various pagan religions played out in the lives of the people.
Today, our societies encourage evil and call it good. They also condemn good and call it evil. For believers, we are to hate evil and stay away from practicing it ourselves. Israel had been freed from years of slavery and abuse at the hands of the Egyptians. God did this for them and chose them to be his very own people. In doing so, he made an agreement or covenant with them. His commandments showed them the difference between good and evil.
It also gave them a picture of God’s holiness, goodness, love, and power. Israel would fall into temptation and sin against God breaking the covenant by adopting the ways of the world. In the verse above, the people established their worship and hope in evil ways rather than in God. We do this today when we blend the world’s ways, philosophies, ideologies, paganism, and other religious practices with God’s. We end up losing focus on God.
As David gives us insight in Psalm 121, I look to the mountains, does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth! Everything else comes up short and ultimately destroys the life we have now and damages our relationship with God. Even though it is very difficult to strip off the things in our culture that trip us up, we can do so by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.
Are you focused on the world’s ways or Jesus?
Reading Plan: Psalm 66, 67; 2 Kings 17:1-18; Acts 9:36-43; Luke 5: 1-11
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