365 Days with God - Day 128: The Truth of Our Foolishness

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 128, April 27, 2014

Readings: Psalm 127, Numbers 8, Isaiah 44:6-28, Philippians 4:2-23

He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!" And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (Isaiah 44:14-17)

Are we not also this foolish? How ridiculous it seems to me to worship a tree that basically serves me - it is mine to burn for heat, for cooking, for building. How can I count on that which I destroy freely to save me from my fears?

Yet while I may not do this with trees, I do it with other things. I trust in money to provide me with security, stability, comfort. Yet I curse it when I don't have enough. I use it to buy things for myself. I use it to influence others. I use money. But when I make it a god, and depend on it to deliver me, it is using me. And how can that be?

There is none besides God. How can I trust in something else to save me? What material, what person, what behaviors can I trust to be my deliverer? I look to so many things to be my confidence and hope, but none of them are reliable, trustworthy and secure. If I had strength it would fail, money would burn, attractiveness fades, metal rusts...

But the Word of the LORD stands forever. And that is what I must trust.