Idolatry is asking a god to help us GET what we want.
Christianity is asking God to help us GIVE all we can in service to Him.
Are we rubbing a lamp looking to RECEIVE, or are we grateful and thankful seeking to SERVE?
Are we seeking glory and honor for ourselves, or looking to give God all the glory?
Are we idolaters, following a god that we’ve made up in our minds in hopes that we will receive what we ask for?
Or are we Christians, worshipping the God that created us, who we know is real, and to whom we have surrendered our lives?
http://bible.com/116/mic.7.1-9.nlt
Micah 7:1-9 NLT
How miserable I am! I feel like the fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger.
The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers. Both their hands are equally skilled at doing evil!
Officials and judges alike demand bribes. The people with influence get what they want, and together they scheme to twist justice. Even the best of them is like a brier; the most honest is as dangerous as a hedge of thorns.
But your judgment day is coming swiftly now. Your time of punishment is here, a time of confusion.
Don’t trust anyone— not your best friend or even your wife!
For the son despises his father. The daughter defies her mother. The daughter-in-law defies her mother-in-law. Your enemies are right in your own household!
As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemies!
For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him. But after that, he will take up my case and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies. The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.
Harold J. Ballinger 