Romans 1:25 "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."
The truth about God is that He exists and that He created the world and us. We, in our modern culture, have exchanged this truth for the lie of evolution. It takes just as much faith to believe evolution as it does to believe that God created everything. Both are religions. One is true and the other is false, bottom line.
But because the lie of evolution was created, that takes out absolute truth and the existence of a supreme ruler, God. If we are all here by accident, what we do doesn't really matter does it? We have no purpose, no reason for our existence. We have no reason to be good or to try and follow any kind of moral law at all.
When people loose sight of God this much, they end up worshipping things of this earth. We were created to worship. We will all worship something, the only question is, what? So often people worship other people or their job or money itself or possessions. Then what happens? The digression continues.
Romans 1:28-32 "Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity."
God has given the majority of our society over to evil. This is not a good thing. This is not him saying, "Ok I'll let you out of my moral jail and you are free now to go have fun." This is him saying, "Ok you are free to go get trapped in mud pits and sinking sand. I will not stop you. You are free to throw yourself in the fire and drown in the ocean. If that is what you really want. Go ahead. I love you but I will not stop you."
Because that is what sin is, it's a prison, it is bondage, it is painful. Sin does not bring life; it brings death. One example is drinking in excess frequently can shorten a person's life by 20 years! Drinking is like drinking poison; it slowly kills the body. But people think they are having a good time etc. They think they are having fun. Sin may be fun for a time, but in the end, it will kill you; your heart, your body, and your soul.
Romans goes on to say, "They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy."
With God there can be unity among people. Without God there is disunity. Sin hardens people's hearts so that they are no longer able to feel, to love or to show mercy. Sin makes one very self-focused. Sin is after all, all about self. Sin says, "What can I get? How can I be happy? If it is at the expense of others, I don't care. I want what I want and that is all that matters."
So what is the solution to all this madness? God said, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Humility is the opposite of pride and sin. Humility says, "You are God and I am not. You are right and I was wrong. I am sorry. Will you take the lead from now on? I didn't mean to try and do things my own way. I didn't mean to spit in your face. I just thought I was having fun. Will you forgive me? Will you save me from myself? I can't do this life anymore on my own. I need your help."
That is basically what most refer to as "the sinner's prayer." It really is a prayer we all would do well to pray every day, because do we not all sin every day? It doesn't really matter if we are Christian or non-Christian, we all sin hundreds of times every day. None of us is perfect, no matter how much we try to act like it.
Jesus said of the Pharisees, "These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me." That is the case of many in our churches all over America today. We are good at talking the talk and playing the act but what do our hearts look like? Are we really actually in love with Jesus? Are our hearts soft? Do we really love others as God calls us to?
I love the line from Shakespeare, "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players." We all know how to act don't we? We all know what's expected of us and we are good at pretending. But God does not look at the outward appearance but at our hearts. He sees through our masks, our facades. He sees who we really are. We cannot hide from Him.
David said, "Search me O God and know my heart.... See if there is any offensive way in me." Do we have any offensive ways in us? Of course we do. "The heart is deceitful above all else, who can know it." Every day we need to say sorry to God and ask him to carry us again don't we? Every day we need to realize that we can't do it on our own.
The best prayer is just saying, "God, help me." That is all He wants to hear. That means the world to Him when we say that. Or my prayer that I used to repeat all day was, "God I can't do this, but you can." Amen? Amen.
Grace and peace be with you and may God bless you as you seek to follow Him more and more! :)
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