Firewood or Idol

<sup>HAVE WE TAKEN THE BLESSINGS GOD HAS GIVEN US, AND MADE THEM OUR GODS INSTEAD.

Reading this particular passage reminds me of how I've sometimes put both material and non material blessings in the place where God rightly is..

Actually, well I was reading quite a bit on Isaiah where there's this portion that says our GOD is still a faithful GOD even after we've not made Him first. Not making him first is a sin, indeed. Isaiah goes on to carry God's message to correct Israel's folly and lack of fear, a very painful message.

Sometimes I really have relied on my material blessings to carry me through a problem, instead of looking to God. And I think that goes for anything; friends instead of GOD, music instead of GOD.</sup>

⁶ “ Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:

‘ I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.

⁷ And who can proclaim as I do?
Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,
Since I appointed the ancient people.
And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them.
⁸ Do not fear, nor be afraid;
Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?

⁹ Those who make an image, all of them are useless,
And their precious things shall not profit;
They are their own witnesses;
They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
¹⁰ Who would form a god or mold an image
That profits him nothing?

¹³ The craftsman stretches out his rule,
He marks one out with chalk;
He fashions it with a plane,
He marks it out with the compass,
And makes it like the figure of a man,
According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.
¹⁴ He cuts down cedars for himself,
And takes the cypress and the oak;
He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.
¹⁵ Then it shall be for a man to burn,
For he will take some of it and warm himself;
Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
Indeed he makes a god and worships it;
He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
¹⁶ He burns half of it in the fire;
With this half he eats meat;
He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
He even warms himself and says,
“ Ah! I am warm,
I have seen the fire.”
¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god,
His carved image.
He falls down before it and worships it,
Prays to it and says,
“ Deliver me, for you are my god!”
¹⁸ They do not know nor understand;
For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,
And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
¹⁹ And no one considers in his heart,
Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
“ I have burned half of it in the fire,
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals;
I have roasted meat and eaten it;
And shall I make the rest of it an abomination?
Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”

Isaiah 44

LORD, You called us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, to give the best of our produce, yet I have not always brought you the best of everything in my life; my time, priority, studies..
I have often repayed your lovingkindess with sin nd rebellion pride.
Forgive me LORD, teach me and show me how to keep you first each moment.