You ain't sittin' there!

Over the last couple of days the Lord keeps reminding me about who is REALLY on the throne of my heart. I just finished A.W. Tozer's book, "The Pursuit of God" (if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! It's encouraging but extremely challenging.) I was looking for a new book so I started on his "Knowledge of the Holy". The very first chapter speaks about not giving God the honor He deserves, not putting Him on the throne that He is worthy of. Where the double whammy came in was when I was reading my Bible last night in Ezekiel. Ezekiel has been given the harsh truth about Israel and where they stand with God. The punishment that God lays out is fierce. "He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols." (Ezekiel 6:12-13) The words, "Then shall ye know that I am the Lord," are what really struck me last night. It seems that at the root of all their problems was simply this - They had given someone else lordship of their hearts besides the only One who deserved it. They had turned aside to worship idols and take part in pagan practices and had left the God of their fathers, their Creator. Because our God is a jealous God He couldn't allow this to continue. He finally told Ezekiel to reveal to Israel what was coming as a result of their idolatry. Death. Whether they were at home or abroad, either by sword or by famine, death would be their end. That's when God says, THEN they will know that I am the Lord. If they won't acknowledge Me on their own, I'll have to show them I ALONE am God and no one else. I realized as I was reading these verses last night just how angry God must have been with them. Here's where it could get sticky and a little misconstrued, so bear with me. I fully understand that we are not under the law - I am more than thankful! But it finally dawned on me that God still gets mad. He gets mad with ME. See, Jesus came and fulfilled the law. Through His death He paid the ultimate price that we might receive mercy for our mistakes. His blood was shed for sin so ours wouldn't have to be. BUT, that doesn't change the fact that God HATES sin. A holy God CANNOT tolerate unholiness. So, my Heavenly Father gets just as upset with me as He did with Israel all those years ago. When I allow something or someone else to sit on the throne of my heart, when I don't put Him in His rightful place, just like Israel did, I'm committing idolatry. In Tozer's book he said, "Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it....It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. 'When they knew God,' wrote Paul, 'they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful;" Have you ever seen a time when people, when WE, are not thankful? When we're unthankful we are, in essence, saying that what God has given us isn't good enough, it doesn't meet our standards. We are putting that desire on the throne of our heart and worship only when we receive it. If we worship only when we receive the promises then are we really worshiping our God or the gifts that He gives? Then there are people. Sometimes what is only meant to be a wholesome love can turn into idolatry when we begin to put what someone else says or desires above what we know to be right and true in the sight of God. When we back down from truth because we know someone will be offended or hurt, when we let someone we love live in sin without ever telling them what will happen if they don't accept Christ we are putting them above our love for Him. What about our time? And now it gets real. Why do I have time for a Facebook post but go to bed thinking I didn't have time to read my Bible? Why do I have time to walk or just sit and relax but didn't manage to take time to pray? I've let my priorities get mixed up. I've now put MYSELF on the throne of my heart. What I long to do and what I know HE wants me to do are at odds with each other, and my way won. Because we are so familiar with Jesus and His grace it's easy to forget God is still a jealous God and will NOT tolerate sin. Any of these forms of idolatry still draw the same righteous anger from a Holy God. The difference now? Grace. When you realize He's just as angry with you for sinning as He was with the children of Israel, you realize the importance of Jesus. He is our Mediator. He is our Go-Between. He's the One that took the blame, that He didn't deserve, so that we could live in free fellowship. He's the buffer between our sin and God's wrath. I am ever thankful. Thankful for grace, mercy, for Jesus and all He does. And I'm thankful for a God that hasn't changed. See, if it were possible for Him to be more tolerant of sin than He once was, it'd also be possible for Him to be less faithful than He once was. If something changes, it can change for the good or the bad. But, because NOTHING about Him changes, I can rest assured that...NOTHING about Him changes! He is faithful, true and holy. He is the ONLY One worthy to sit on the throne of our hearts. To everything else that fights for the throne we must declare, "You're not sitting there! That seat is reserved!"