First Thursday of Advent

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 2:12-22

Key Verse(s): Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

If we’re willing to be honest with ourselves we have to admit that our hearts are frequently divided in their loyalties. Rather than being fixed solely on loving God we are filled with fleeting attractions to and affections for those things which cannot satisfy because they are not God. They are idols. Israel struggled mightily with idols, frequently abandoning their worship of the One True God for the worship of statues of wood and stone. At other times they tried to worship both idols and God. But God will not be shared. He desires and demands all of us for all of Him. Today our idols may not be statues or stone and wood, but they may take the form of success, independence, money, power, possessions, and pride. If we are to have hearts that belong to God alone then we must become humble people so that God alone may be exalted (Isa 2:17). There is nothing that man can offer that compares with what God desires to freely give us. Isaiah 2:22 says “Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?” The point isn’t to demean human life, but to redirect our priorities and our perspective. If a person stops breathing they die, their physical life ends, they are finite and their abilities and powers are finite. Yet we spend so much time following the ways of man when we should be seeking the one who gives life to man in the first place. We need to remember that in the Garden of Eden “God breathed into him [Adam] the breath of life and he became a living creature” (Gen 2:7). No person and no idol made with human hands have that capacity.

Reflect: What things have become idols in your life that divide your heart from loving God and serving Him? Begin the work of ridding yourself of them and giving an undivided heart to God.

Heavenly Father, teach me to love you alone. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For Further Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 Luke 20:27-40 Psalm 18:1-20