We are a people who want to look rich without investing all that money (that we often don't have), so we fell in love with our knock-off brands and now, it seems, the whole world has trended toward cheapness. The same is true with our worship - we created idols in our own image so that we could look like faithful individuals without the sacrifice that comes from trying to live truly righteous lives according to the standard of God. And we have seen the way that our cheap idols have given us the opportunity to make worship about us, about what we're doing, instead of about who God is - because our idols have no character of their own.
And if you need more evidence of this, look no further than the content of our so-called worship services. Listen to the language of today's church and ask yourself:
Who is the center of our attention?
Most often, it is...us. I. Me. We.
Look at the language. We used to sing hymns about the greatness of God, about amazing grace, about His power, love, goodness, favor, blessing, mercy, and all of the things that make Him truly the Lord of all the universe, Lord of all.
Today, we sing about ourselves. We sing about how we stand up in His presence, or bow down. How we love Him. Not how He loves us, but how we love Him. We sing about our faithfulness. Not His; ours. We sing about our own lives, how chains have been rattled and health restored and life redeemed, but we sing about the redeemed themselves (us)...not the Redeemer.
Slowly, but surely, we have shifted our emphasis, even in our most holy places, away from the Lord and onto ourselves.
Have you listened to anyone pray lately?
Jesus taught the disciples, and through them, us, to pray - a prayer that begins with an emphasis on the Lord: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
But the most common word in so many of our prayers today? "I." We. God, I come to you because I want something. God, we seek your favor. God, here I am. Here we are. We want, we need, we desire, we deserve. I beg. I plead. Have mercy on me...but no acknowledgement that the God we are praying to is actually the God of mercy. Just, you know, it'd be nice because I really need mercy right now.
The trouble is that so many of us have adopted this language without even really noticing it. It never occurred to us. We think that because we mention God, it must be holy language, but here we are and the very clear emphasis is on ourselves.
Which is exactly what happens.
We create the knock-offs to make ourselves feel richer, to keep up appearances, to create an image. And then, we create idols in our own images. We start to worship these things with an emphasis on ourselves, where the primary concern is the worshiper. And all of a sudden, even the real thing becomes lesser. Becomes cheaper. Becomes idolatrous.
We have replaced the true God with our idol of Him and have begun to worship accordingly. Our whole language has changed, and we haven't even noticed it.
Until one day, we look up and start to lament that things today just aren't the way they used to be....
Ya' think?
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