Stop Giving Dirty Diapers to God!

Here’s another definition – an Idol is whatever you allow to take up and consume all of your time.  How much time do we spend in church?  Maybe four – seven hours a week (if you don’t work there).  How much time do you spend in front of the television or perhaps the tablet device/computer screen?  I would venture a guess that for the most part the hours spent here would out number the hours spent at church.  But church isn’t the only place to find God is it?  I mean we all own bibles don’t we?  How many hours a day or even a week do we spend reading its pages?

What is consuming your time?  Some might say, “well my family takes up a lot of it“, while others might say, “I work sixty hour weeks” and I certainly don’t want to sound as if I’m condemning any of that.  It just hit me driving by that big purple bill board how little time I sometimes actually-physically give to God.  Not just at work, but as a devoted lover and follower of God.

“Here God – take my left-overs”

It’s almost as if I’ve been saying to God, “You stay home while I go to work, I’ll be back in like eight hours…see ya!”  or “Well God I’ve got more pressing things to do today, I have to catch up on all of my DVR’d shows, we’ll talk some other time”.  God doesn’t have an on/off switch.  He isn’t some toy you place on a shelf and only take Him down when you feel like it.  God desires from us real and genuine fellowship, not our left-overs.

“CAIN & ABEL” 

Do you remember Cain and Abel? (Read Genesis 4 again)  Sure we remember that Cain kills his brother, but why?  Because he was jealous of how he was blessed by God.  But why was he blessed by God?  Because Abel honored God with the first fruits and not his left-overs.  Cain honored God with the scraps of his left-overs, the less desired cuts from his crops, while he feasted on prime rib of the land.  Abel set apart the best of the best for God and then used the rest.

You see there’s an application here.  Are you ABEL (pun intended) to give God the best of the best first?  For far too long I’ve been giving Him my left-overs.  I’ve been giving Him my after thoughts, my junk…my dirty diapers, and I’ve been thinking that’s good enough.  WELL IT ISN’T!   God didn’t send down some second rate half-wit of an angel to save us did He?  No way!  He sent us His best.  He sent us His Son to save us from sin and death.  God doesn’t want our scraps…He wants genuine fellowship with us.  He wants us to set apart our hearts first for Him and then for others…then for our self.  Be we get that backwards sometimes…a lot of times…most of the time.

Stop giving God your dirty diapers, your rubbish, your “good enoughs”.  Only your best will do!  Maybe it’s time to turn off the television for while, or put down that novel.  Maybe it’s time to let God consume you instead of you consuming stuff and work and play.  Are you prepared to give God your best instead of the rest of the left-overs and the dirty diapers?

-Just a thought to consider.

“But I do know we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie