Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you... (Deuteronomy 6:14).
Almighty God, heavenly Father, You are "God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome" (Deuteronomy 10:17). "Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders" (Exodus 15:11)?
You have revealed Yourself in Scripture as the one true God:
"I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am He. No one can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it” (Isaiah 43:11-13).
Throughout Scripture, You have validated Your supreme power, Your majesty, and Your might in the face of human doubt, human wavering, human challenge, human rebellion. This only for our benefit—You are God and do not need to justify Yourself before us. But by Your mercy and grace You do not leave us in confusion.
We think of Joshua, challenging a nation, even after all they had seen of Your mighty deliverance, "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..." (Joshua 24:15).
We think of the prophet Elijah, later challenging them again to make a decision, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). And faced with indisputable evidence of Your distinguished power they "fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord—He is God! The Lord—He is God'" (1 Kings 18:39)!
We think of the apostle Paul challenging the people of Athens, in the midst of their careful inclusivity, "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..." (Acts 17:22-23).
Oh Lord, You have not left us in ignorance—You have given us evidence of Your love and Your mercy. And with each new day, and with each new year of grace we face the same "challenge"—the same decision as others through the centuries:
To accept the grace You offer through the sacrifice of Your Son or to embrace broad or empty religion. To accept You as You reveal Yourself, or to "recreate" You according to our own preferences and sensibilities. To obey Your laws or to reject the boundaries You designed for our safety and our well-being. To choose the life You offer, so that [we] and [our] children may live (Deuteronomy 30:19), or to choose defiance, destruction and death.
Help us, O Lord, to choose wisely. All around us, we see the results of the world's choices—the wanton abandon to pleasure, greed, and self-indulgence; selfishness, violence and hatred.
Help us not to follow the gods of this world, "storing up things for [ourselves] but not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21); seeking to "gain the whole word" and forfeiting our soul in exchange (Mark 8:36). Help us not to be as the "ignorant...who carry about idols..., who pray to gods that cannot save" (Isaiah 45:20).
Help us to choose life.
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