Jeremiah 25:6

“Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands;”

Throughout the Old Testament, we will notice something important that repeats to the people of Israel from one generation to another. No doubt they were faced with many enemies and nations attacking them but each time when God dwells among them and His presence is covering or protecting them, there is always a guaranteed victory. However when they began to be rebellious and worship idols they began to fall from grace and the results were defeats, sufferings, and shame.

The verse from Jeremiah 25:6 tells us that one sin that will surely provoke God to anger is idolatry. Idolatry is not only the worship of other "gods" but also serving them.

In today's context, as Christians there is a danger that we might fall into this sin if we are not careful. We may not be worshipping idols or statue of any sort but yet we can still fall into worship of idolatry and serving them. What are these forms of idolatry that we are in danger of falling into the work of our hands as in Jeremiah 25:6?

The Holy Spirit is teaching us something interesting today. The work of our hands that often we idolised and served are perhaps the following; riches, success, career, relationship, family or it could even be health.

Often we are told that we are masters of our destiny or if we do not help ourselves God will not help us. Based on these statements we begin to shape our minds thinking that we are in control of our future and how it would turn out. So we begin to put every effort to work towards our ambitions with our hands that signifies strength. We use our strength in the form of knowledge, control, power, experience, and ability to shape our career, family, and success to a point that we begin to idolize them. Our noble thought or good service has turned into a self-reliant and self-effort that God is no longer in the picture. He is no longer the person that we are seeking first (Matt 6:33).

So how do we know that we idolize them? The best answer to this is to check the things in our life that we prioritize most and place at the top of our daily routine above seeking the presence and counsel of God. Is at the top of our list our focus, concern, and worry on family that everything surrounds our children, spouse, etc...Or perhaps it is the focus on our career that we are so busy trying to make it to the top. Or could it be our health that we can be so obsessed with exercise, fitness, and our diet regime that we need to keep track of.

Well it is important to stress and make it clear that while our career, health and family are important to us; we need to ensure that God takes priority above everything else and we need to involve Him in every aspect of our life.

The greatest request that God will surely grant us is when we ask for the Holy Spirit. Start by asking the Holy Spirit to give us the hunger, desire, and passion to seek God's presence and establish a relationship daily that cannot be shaken and allow His wisdom to help us to involve God in every area and aspect of our lives. It is when we have this solid relationship with God that we involve in other areas of our lives that we truly know it is God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit that we truly serve and worship in Spirit and in truth!

Prepared by the prophetic grace of God,

Pastor James Leow

KOGSC