HAND-CRAFTED SIN

So these nations feared the Lord,

yet served their carved images;

also their children and their children's children

have continued doing as their fathers did,

even to this day.

2 Kings 18:41 (NKJV)

You can fear the Lord and still serve your own gods.

That is my handwritten side note beside verse 33 of the same chapter, which states the same thing.

I, Rhonda, can fear the Lord, and still, mistakenly, serve my own gods.

Maybe not little statues, but little issues, you bet.

Money.

Accolades.

Security.

Love.

Anything that I try to put above the Lord God and Jesus Christ will become a god to me.

A god that I myself have created. It tells us the people were serving "their carved images". Someone had to carve them. Isaiah says something very similar.

For in that day every man should throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold - sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

Isaiah 31:7 (NKJV)

Sin that I have made for myself. It might have started out innocently enough.

A man wanting to provide for his family.

A mom wanting her kids to be well behaved.

Just wanting to shed those few pounds.

Writing something and wanting people to think it was good. Insightful.

An employee wanting to make his or her boss proud.

All good things, but the moment they move up the ladder to the top and surpass my relationship with Jesus Christ, they have become gods.

Am I sacrificing my family to make money?

Am I enabling my kids instead of training them up?

Am I obsessed about my weight? Letting it define me instead of resting in who I am in Christ Jesus?

Do I seek the approval of man above the approval of God?

All easy traps to fall into. For me it is usually a slow fall.

Gradual.

A little compromise here, a little give there.

A second look in the mirror followed by a run down of all the things I don't like.

Bribing my kids to behave in front of company, all the time.

Checking my profile status to see how many people have visited.

Sin that I myself have crafted.

If that was not bad enough, sin that can be passed down for generations (note the plural).

If I am obsessed with my body, don't you think for a second my men children won't be with theirs.

If my husband works at the expense of these boys, he is marking the path they will be likely to follow, and pay dearly for.

Diligence is what is required of me.

Listening for the Voice that says this the way to walk.

Heeding the Holy Spirit's nudges.

Keeping my heart and mind grounded in the word of God.

Because I, and you, have been delivered from all of that.

Deliberately.