What does it mean to become futile? Are your efforts futile? How does someone who is wise become a fool? Why would anyone exchange glory for foolishness? Why give up God for idol worship?
We may believe turning to idol worship is foolish. And it is. We may believe giving up glory for foolishness is outlandish. And it is. But have we done so ourselves? A tough question only we can answer for ourselves.
As we believe in sharing in the glory of God, we must understand what the cost is. The price is both minimal and exorbitant. It all depends on your perspective. The cost is exorbitant if our perspective is the same the world. If we prefer a grand house, luxury vehicle, and name recognition over God, the price is extremely high. If we allow those things to be our idols and we put them ahead of God, His glory is out of reach. This is not to say those things are bad themselves. They are only bad if they own us, they become our idols.
However, if we are not concerned with worldly possessions, but prefer God over anything the world can offer, the price is minimal. When putting God’s plan ahead of our own, following where He is leading, we share in His glory.
If we have known God and give up His glory for chasing worldly idols, our thinking has become futile. Can you imagine? We become useless. We fail to achieve a good result. Our thinking becomes unimportant. Why would we give up the glory of God to become useless? We are tricked by Satan’s schemes and chase after worldly desires. The shiny object we can achieve today replaces our focus on the ultimate glory we are granted by staying focused on God.
I pray we all hold on to our faith in God. I pray we refuse to trade our glory in God for the futility of the world. I pray each one of us change our perspective to be the same as God’s. Do not give up. Hold on to God. Look forward to God’s glory. Worship God alone. Put Him first.
Romans 1:21-23 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Marty Pressey 