Day 5: One True King

One True King

Do you remember Beyoncé’s Grammy Performance in 2017? She performed while pregnant, She wore a gold-beaded dress and crown with a solid gold necklace and earrings and she looked #flawless. Her fans were worshipping at her feet, hailing before “Queen B.”  I’ll be the first to admit that I can get caught up in artists, and performances, and who wore what on the red carpet, and I can easily forget what really matters. Although Beyonce is a talented musician and actress, she’s just a human being.

In the same way, we often do this with things we idolize in our own lives. While Beyoncé did, in fact, look flawless, she was not. No one but Jesus alone is without flaw. We are all humans and we are all sinful. No one and nothing that we place our trust in will satisfy our longings except God alone.

Verse 22 says, “[We] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Why would we worship images of creation when we can have the Creator Himself? Would you rather have pictures of the newest Nike Air Max 270’s taped to your wall, or the actual Air Max’s on your feet? This is what we sometimes do with God. We love this idea of God, yet we forget to actually worship and spend time with Him. We worship the things He created on this earth instead of worshiping the Creator.

Only through worshiping the Creator will we find satisfaction, peace, and joy. When we start to worship and place our trust in Christ, our minds and our perspectives change. The only one who truly satisfies is the One True King.

In response to their sins, God “gave them up” (vv. 24, 26) to practices that manifested His judgment. When we choose to idolize things that aren’t God, our sin distills fear and dissatisfaction in us. We then, many times, engage in things that cheapen our lives and make us feel worthless. This makes sense that we would feel this way when we are worshipping the wrong thing.

Jesus even says in Mark 10:18, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” When we start to worship these people and these things, we realize that we are empty and that they don’t satisfy our longings. Everything outside of God will mess up and make mistakes, and we will be disappointed.   

When we place our hope and trust in Jesus, the burden is lifted off of us– this burden where we have to measure up, where we have to do good things and earn our salvation. The pressure to do all these things is gone because through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can have peace and fulfillment. We can rest and not worry about how we don’t measure up, but trust in the assurance of our salvation in Christ.

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Think about the things and people in your life that you pour most of your time and energy into. Are there things in your life are taking up your time and attention instead of Jesus? Is it your significant other, your best friend, your job, sports?

Reflect on how you spend time with Jesus. What does this look like? Does your relationship with Jesus get that much time and effort?  There is so much peace in resting in a relationship with him.