Some people are much more advanced in the worship of self. These people love and adore themselves to the exclusion of all others.
Some people worship God and Jesus
Some people worship Satan or the demons
Some people worship other people
Some people worship things or circumstances
Some people worship themselves. These are the most dangerous of all.
There’s a difference between Self-love and Self-worshiping
Do I take care of myself because I want to honour the gift of life God has given me? Or am I lifting myself above God and others in the name of self-care? It’s worth asking.
The problem
A desire to worship ourselves prevents the expression of God in us and our being a blessing to other people. The spirit of murder, gossip, and slander, addiction to drugs and alcohol, a desire to lie and steal, lust, a willingness to molest little children, are symptoms of a deeper problem. These sinful, destructive bondages, these chains, are placed on us because we love our-self more than we do God.
I saw a picture in the newspaper a few days ago where a man was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He had ingested cocaine and, as a result, ran over a young girl with his truck and killed her. He was a decent-looking person. The expression on his face at his sentencing was one of horror at what he had done and the penalty imposed on him. He was vulnerable to the addiction because he was serving himself rather than God.
Difference Between Loving yourself and Worshiping yourself
Loving yourself means to have a preference for, wish well to, and regard the welfare of. You can love yourself in many ways, including kindness, gentleness, patience, embracing, and walking out who God has created to be. But loving yourself as God loves you always overflows in generosity and love towards others. In contrast, worshiping yourself is indeed selfish. It turns relationships into either a competition or a self-serving platform. Some warning signs include, Your self-care comes at the expense of others, All focus, motivation, and concern are pointed inward, Other people, and even God, are seen as a means to fulfill your wants or needs.
Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Here are a few ways people go about designing their own God to worship.
People dismiss the existence of God: People put it out of their minds that one true God could possibly exist who created them and holds specific standards that they must keep. The gods of their imaginations don’t have any problems with their personal beliefs and actions.
People decide what their deity should be like: People give the God of their design the attributes and powers that they think he/she/it should have. They also decide what qualities they don’t want their God to have, including the right to require anything of them that they would prefer not to do.
People predict the afterlife: Many people choose to believe in an afterlife that happens to be their sense of what is fair and not. If they don’t like the teaching of the Bible regarding the reality of hell, they may design in their minds an eternity where everyone gets to live in some kind of paradise except, of course, for the really bad people.
People refuse to submit to any authority except those whom they choose to obey: To be self-ruling, people can’t let others tell them what to do. They must be the masters of their ships without accountability to anyone, including their spouse, boss, government, or creator.
God wants and commands everyone to worship him alone. The Gods of our imagination or self-worship have no power to love or rescue us from anything, including over-selves. Seek to love and know more about the one true God who created us in his image, and sent his Son into the world to redeem and restore us to a right relationship with him.
Would you prefer to walk in the beaming light of God’s face instead of the fleeting light of your own?
Matthew 22:37
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
