Whose God Is He Anyway??

Recently I have been working through the minor prophets of the bible during my devotional time. For those who don't know, the minor prophets are the shorter prophetic books of the Old Testament like Micah, Habakuk, Hosea, Zechariah, etc. Now, despite their funny names, these minor (because they're small books, not 'cos they were under 18) prophets aren't afraid to tell people what God thinks. And it's not all good news.

One of the biggest themes in these books is the problem of Idolatry.

At that time the people of Israel weren't worshipping God, they were following after other gods that were images that someone had carved into wood or stone. And, to make matters worse, some of the few that claimed to actually follow Yahweh (what the Israelites called God) were only using it as a cover for some even shadier business stuff than the idolaters!!!

Reading these prophets words set me to thinking.

I have just finished Hosea (I'm not reading them in the exact order that they are in the Bible) and the last few chapters have gotten me to thinking.

Typically an idol is an image of an animal, person or mythical/supernatural being that has been drawn, painted, carved or sculpted by another person and then worshipped.

Sometimes these idols are big and hard to move, but they can also be small and easy to carry around with you. In bible times each house had their own idols and people would often carry them around with them.

Hosea 14: 3 says: "Assyria shall save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more 'Our God' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy." (Italics and bold mine)

This set me to thinking.

When we say "Our God" what do we mean.

Do we mean that God is Our god, a thing that we carry around with us to bail us out when things get tough, to pray to like Santa to get what we want when we want it? Are we trying to control God, shrink Him down to size so that we can control and manipulate him for our own plans?

OR

Do we mean that God is the God we follow, that we are His not that he is ours? If this is the case are we willing to listen to Him when he asks us to do something? We need to remember that God is infinite. He is so much bigger than our human minds can comprehend.

Let's not try and shrink God down to our size, but open our minds to the enormity of God and allow Him to move us where we need to go.

Remember that we are a work of Gods Hands, not that God is a work of our hands.

Idol or God, you choose!!