Billy Graham once said, “I’ve never seen a hearse towing a U-Haul”. It’s a simple fact that whatever we accumulate in this life, we cannot take with us. Scripture admonishes those who place the things of this world over the world to come, yet we are undeterred. So, is God really important?
Apathy Towards God
America is still an incredibly wealthy nation and this is likely the cause of the growing apathy towards God. We have become so self-sufficient that we feel no need for a God who would lay guilt upon us and cheat us of our pleasure. We have removed Him from every institution with the exception of prisons, and yet we seem amazed at the state of decline in the morals of our society today.
Social media is filled with divisive rhetoric both from the secular world and so-called Christians. We are so engrossed with espousing our own version of the truth, we have forgotten where Truth resides. We see a people who espouse to be Christian but are willing to side with political figures whose morals are woefully lacking. We rationalize support for these people under the guise of “the other option would be worse”.
God Should Be Important
What message are we sending? That my Christian values are only important when it is convenient?
While this country is experience a decline in Christianity, it is not the same in other parts of the globe. In parts of China and Africa, for example, they are experiencing the fastest growing movements towards Christianity anywhere else in the world. Why? At the risk of oversimplifying, they see a need that Christianity can fill in their lives. It would not take a tremendous leap of faith to state just the opposite for this country. We are a society driven by self-determination.
In the sixth chapter of Matthew, verse 21 our Lord states the following: “ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. A little later in verse 33, He commands, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”.
Both of these verses directly and indirectly deal with idolatry. While we are not expected to live an existence similar to a monastic lifestyle, we are expected to place our Christian calling ahead of everything else in the priority list. Unfortunately, our friendship with the world is far more important than our relationship with God.
But there lies the difficulty. In pursuit of the better job, more power, recognition, money, social status, and possessions we ignore our eternal calling. We place so much focus on this temporary, fleeting existence believing that our deathbed is years into the future, that we reduce God’s will for our lives to nothing more than an afterthought.
If we spent even half of the energy we spend on defending the indefensible positions of the politics of today towards reaching the lost, think of the impact we could have!
Let us all take a good, hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves “where are my priorities?”
For further study, consider this book by Tim Frisch entitled “God Matters: The Importance of Belief in a World of Doubt
