My husband was driving us home tonight from a football game that we went to out of town and I was in the passenger seat browsing Facebook, my church website, and my Pastor’s blog. Those three things combined resulted in an epiphany to write this blog post. I feel like part of this blog post has been in the works for awhile and tonight God gave me the thoughts to complete it.
Everytime I get on Facebook, I see multiple people promoting their multi-level marketing (MLM) companies. It is not just a single post, it is nearly 10-15 posts in a row about how this company has changed their life, improved their finances, how everything is sunshine and rainbows, and how the rest of us should sign up and join them…and they post this stuff constantly. I have had people I haven’t talked to in years hit me up to join these things. They don’t even start the conversation with something like “Hey, how are you doing? I hope you are doing well.” They jump right in with “would you like to pay off your student loans?” “would you like to make millions?” “would you like to get healthier?”. The goal is for you to answer yes, and that opens the door for them to share their MLM company with you and hopefully add you to the pyramid underneath them.
Is paying off our debts bad? Is getting healthy bad? No, but what I have noticed with a lot of the people that get involved in the MLM companies, is that it becomes their idol. It is the #1 thing they talk about, the #1 thing they worship, the thing they dedicate most of their time too, the #1 thing they share with others. It is addicting, because the more they share it with others, the more money they make, the more successful they are, etc.
What if God was #1? What if God was the #1 thing that they talked about? What if God was the #1 thing they worshipped…the person that they dedicated most of their time to? What if the gospel was the #1 thing they shared with others? What if we spent our time sharing the gospel so that we could add people to the family of believers? Food for thought my friends.
I am not saying that MLM’s are the only things that people idolize; it is just one that is typically very public and prominent. People idolize other people, sports, their jobs, and many other things. I’m not trying to say that I’m perfect either and that I don’t at times put things above God. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it over and over again until I’m blue in the face; I’m not perfect; I’m a work in progress–but I am actively and constantly working on my relationship with God and trying to use my life to glorify him as well as to share the gospel with others. If/when I find things that I am putting before God, I ask for forgiveness and actively work to get my priorities straight.
The bible warns us of idols many times (these are just a few):
1 Corinthians 10:14: "Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
Jonah 2:8: "Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them."
Exodus 20:3-5 :"Do not worship any other gods besides me. Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god."
So what are we supposed to do? Are we not supposed to work? Make money? Pay off debt? 1 Corinthians has the answer:
1 Corinthians 10:31 :So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
When we seek and glorify God, he reveals himself to us. I can speak to this 100 times over…when I really seek God and I mean REALLY seek him, he reveals himself to me everywhere. It is amazing! Whether it is items in a store, billboards on the road, my patient and his wife that stop to pray before I work with the patient, the football players that took a knee in the end zone before the game today and prayed…he is there. He is all around us. As my pastor said on his blog, he wants us to seek him!
We just have to ask ourselves are the things that we are doing–are we doing them for ourselves or are we doing them to glorify God? I promise, the things that we do to glorify God are so much more fulfilling than the things we do for ourselves. My friend once told me; we all have a Jesus sized hole in our hearts and he is the only one that can fill it. Idols will never fill the hole in our hearts, complete us, or give us eternal life.
John 14:6 "Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Love and prayers to all of you my sweet friends.
Leave No Words Left Unwritten 