What Is Wrong?

Oh, the joys of those who trust the LORD, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols. [Psalm 40.4] 

To trust the LORD, now, there is a subject for contemplation!

Why is it that so many people claim to trust in the LORD, but so few actually walk in His power? What is wrong?

The Bible makes repeated statements of supernatural blessings upon those who trust God, but the Church today reads those verses and passages as abstract spiritual allegory. It makes for good discussion that yields no change in the lives of the discussers. No one really believes all that stuff and it is overwhelmingly evident in the powerless lives they live. Some groups claim "power" but their claims carry no substance. Many declare, "faith" and demand it of others, but no one is moving mountains or doing anything Jesus demanded. That is just wrong.

Then, there are others who hold their Bibles high in the air demanding allegiance to God Who wrote it, but then insist that all the powerful events repeatedly described and encouraged in the Bible have no application for us today. That too is just wrong.

Psalm 40.4 gives us a clue what it is that is wrong: people today have confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols. Human pride is idolatry in itself. To have confidence in idolaters is also idolatry. In fact, to trust in anything or anyone besides God alone is idolatry. Consequently, there is no distinguishing joy in those who claim to trust God - they look and act just like everyone else, except that maybe they put on a big smile and go to church a time or two each week or month. Psalm 40 indicates that those who trust God enjoy not just "joy" but "joys."

When Israel entered the Promised Land, they were to annihilate that land's inhabitants. Why? Because God wanted Israel to learn nothing of those inhabitants' idolatry. God would not tolerate anything of His people that was not full trust in Him alone. We know how that story turned out however... Israel allowed the ways of idolatry to infect their ranks over and again proving the "cause" of idolatry and the "effect" of curses.

But God's Son born in Bethlehem changed all that, right? Again, wrong. Jesus came in the flesh to accomplish what God wanted Israel and the world to see all along: pure trust in God alone. Jesus gave a flesh and blood example of what a life free from idolatry looks like. Jesus demanded this same idol-free, death-defying allegiance of His followers:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]

In no world or circumstance does God in heaven or Jesus on earth (God in the flesh) allow "His people" to trust anyone or anything besides Him. Idolatry has always been man's sin problem and will continue to be the problem until the earth as we know it passes. 

Both groups described above as "wrong" share a common problem: idolatry. Both groups, regardless what they claim about their respective doctrines and theologies, rely on the same idols of the world in which they live. They depend on debt, insurance, medicine and technology and, worse still, make them all part of their "religion" in claiming God uses these industries to do for man what God said He alone would do for man. The irony of their claim that "God uses these industries" is that the world uses them too - the world they claim they are in but NOT part of (John 15.19).

THINK: For those described earlier who do not believe "healing, prosperity, or other such blessings" are in the atonement of Jesus, why would they take it upon themselves to obtain those blessings elsewhere? Does God endorse such idolatrous trust in debt, insurance, medicine and technology? The idol of religion says, "YES!"

A true believer's only option is this: undivided trust in God alone. This undivided trust in God alone is what distinguishes God's people from the world. Any other way that is not distinctly God's way is an idol. Again, Jesus said:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]

From what is said here we can see that the Church has an idol that the world does not have and utilize: the Church's idol of religion that endorses (albeit by concession) all the world's other idols. This practice takes "wrong" (idolatry) to a whole other level and all the while "the Church" religiously sings emotional songs of "joy" that it knows nothing about... Oh, they know it in theory, but not in practice.

Father, help Your people to see that true joy is the result of true faith free from idols. May Your people take Jesus' demand as seriously as He said it. May Your true believers give up their own way (their own idols), take up their cross (fearless of death itself), and follow Jesus. May Your true believers understand that "following Jesus" is not what they "say," but what they "do" - looking and acting just like the New Testament distinctly portrays Him to be. So be it.