Jeremiah 7:19 (NLT) “Am I the one they are hurting?” asks the Lord. “Most of all, they hurt themselves, to their own shame.”

Jeremiah was a prophet during one of the most sinful periods in the land of Judah. God's people had turned away to worship other gods that weren't gods all, with the women even offering sacrifices to the queen of heaven. Even though God was warning them to turn back from their idolatry, they refused to listen. They had gotten so hard-hearted that they did not believe the warnings from God that Jeremiah was proclaiming to them. That's when the Lord said the words of the verse above, which happen to be very sobering and true.

We have this notion that we serve God, pray, read our Bibles and go to church all to make God happy or as a favor to Him. Many think that because they do those things, God owes them something. But the truth of the matter is that all of those things, including loving and serving the Lord is for our own benefit. God is God and in being God, He needs nothing at all, especially from us. It's just that He happens to love us so He tells us how to live in a manner that will bring blessings into our lives and warns us when we are headed towards trouble. Worshipping idols is heading for trouble. While we think that most people don't worship idols as they did back in ancient times, many people still do. It may not be a big, ugly, wooden statue that they worship but it could be that they worship material things or perhaps even a person that they idolize. An idol is anything that you put as of first importance in your life over God. An idol is the focus of your life. Any other focus but focus on our Creator leads to heartache and trouble. The trouble does not touch God, but it touches our own lives. Worshipping "things" over God leads to a life of trouble and strife. There is something bad that happens to our souls when we worship anything or anyone other than God. That's because we were made to worship and adore Him and Him alone. Anything else that we put over God has a corrupting effect on us. Just read about the horrible things that God's chosen people began to do when they started to worship other gods. They became depraved and even began to offer their children in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Know that you serve God for your own good and for your own safety. It keeps you safe from yourself, as you can do some pretty vile and destructive things when you get away from God. Know that the one that you are hurting when you turn away from Him is yourself, along with all the people in your life that you care about. Stay in the safe and blessed zone by making the Lord your first love and your top priority so that everything will flow well in your life and so that you will be a blessing and not a curse to those around you. Don't hurt yourself but instead, love and serve the Lord Jesus with all of your heart and soul for your own good.

Pastor Joey Vazquez