Make Up Your Mind
1Kings 18:20-40
Elijah went up to the people and said, “How much longer will it take you to make up your minds? If the LORD is God, worship him; but if Baal is God, worship him!” But the people didn’t say a word. I Kings 18:21 (GNB)
The situation in the lives of many people today is similar to that of the children of Israel as portrayed in our text. There are those who in their confused state have mixed the worship of God with the worship of idols/things. Many idolize money more than God; while many more idolize Christianity at the expense of Christ. Like the children of Israel; they fear the Lord and serve their own gods (2Kings 17:33). Such people are doomed unless they turn to God in genuine repentance and forsake their ways. It is impossible to serve God and mammon.
Your Mind A Battleground
The greatest resource a man has in himself is his mind. The mind is the building factory for all the acts and the attitudes of man. It does more than just processing information; it conditions the way we believe and the way we express our belief. It is a battleground because what we can see and what we are going through at most times, want to be processed as the basis of our action and reaction, rather than what we believe. The children of Israel in our text on one hand worshiped God to please the prophets while on the other hand they worshiped Baal to please Ahab and Jezebel. This is the height of hypocrisy. Worshiping God in public and secretly sacrificing or bowing down to idols in our homes or villages so as not to offend the elders severs our relationship with the true God.
Have the Right Perspective
Nothing colors the mind more than fear and confusion. There is fear of lack, of rejection and of death. These fears are brought about by wrong perspective on issues or incomplete reality of events. The children of Israel in this text failed to take note of the impotence of Baal to do anything about the famine they were going through. They also failed to discern the real problem that Ahab was going through, and the transient nature of his authority. So they allowed their fear to dominate them in following the god of Ahab. True believers take their stand against any false worship or sin even at the risk of losing their lives or property. The service of God and that of Satan cannot go hand in hand.
Wordless is Faithless
The response of the children of Israel to Elijah’s challenge aptly describes many people’s response to the call to salvation through repentance. “But the people didn’t say a word.”v.21 They tried to evade taking a decision. Sometimes when faced with life greatest decision of repentance from sin and acceptance of Christ, the sinner will often wave it off with such excuses as ‘everybody else is doing it.’ This kind of excuse hardly pays. It leads to destruction eventually. Everyone has his life to live and give account to God. The guiding principle of those who want to fully obey must always be: “others may, I cannot.” I will rather be a lone ranger following the Lord than be a popular figure following the world. We need to take the right decision no matter the cost. To the flesh the decision may be painful, to the world it may look foolish, but if it is a decision that will eventually receive from the Lord “well done, thou good and faithful servant … enter into the joy of thy Lord”, we should go ahead and take it without any qualms.
Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you. Selah.
