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“This is what God hates about religion. He hates how our implementation of religion can be so self-serving.”
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 70.
Why do you do what you do? Maybe it is because you like it. Maybe you feel you have no choice. Maybe you have one of a hundred reasons for doing what you do that is totally justified and acceptable. Problem is that it isn’t too unreasonable to say that most of our reasons for doing what we do are completely and unmistakably self-serving.
Take the question, “Why do you go to Church?” If you are anything like me your answer to that question will range from the pious sounding to something that is utterly selfish. It is when we chose to stay in places where we do things from the foundation of self that it becomes so hard to understand this victor status that God has made available to us.
When we apply our faith in ways that are ultimately self-serving religion can take on a really bad form. In fact, most of the rejection of religion in the world today comes as the result of people outside our holy huddle seeing something that just isn’t all that appealing. Why in the world would someone focused on their own stuff want to join a group of people already entrenched in self-serving ways like what can be found in so many of our Sunday services today?
It is when religion is used in ways to help us feel better about ourselves, or when we make religion about our comfort and needs that the world smells the sweet fragrance of Jesus in ways that was never suppose to happen. Outsiders deciding that they just don’t want to come to Church can often be summed up with the well used word, hypocrisy. How many times have you heard it said by the unchurched how they hate the hypocrisy in the Church? Much of that hypocrisy can be traced directly to our desire to let religion be part of our path to success in ways God never intended.
Jesus was pretty direct on the issue of hypocrisy. Take a look at today's Bible reading.
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Mark 7:6 (NIV)
It is when we do things, like go to church with motives focused on self that we find ourselves right in the middle of what Jesus was condemning in these words. It isn't that church can't be something we like or that it makes us feel good. I sure hope church remains both of those for me. It is that God wants us to be more focused on Him rather than on our feelings when it comes to worshiping Him.
As with so many things that are measured by feelings, it is a heart issue that we need to address when it comes to religion. What is the desire of your heart with regards to how you practice your religion? A heart looking to satisfy the self is a heart that is missing the fullness of the love God has for you.
Sad to say, but a heart focused on self will always miss what it means to be a victor and will lead to victim thinking ways. That's a place God hates for us to be. You want to know why He hates that place for us? It's because it causes us pain, a pain that reaches deep down in our souls and makes us feel we aren't what He calls us to be - His children.
Most of what we all will do today is focused on self. I'm in no way delusional enough to think that that won't be the case. That, in of itself, isn't a big issue. It is when the heart gets consumed with self that our Victim Based Society flourishes.
What's the fix to this situation? I believe it is thinking about and surrendering your heart to God every chance you get today. Take time today to listen to your heart and to then ask God to hold your heart in a way where it can give into His tender touch. The more and more you practice this simple method of communing with God the more you will get into touch with the identity God has made for you. Your victor status is most lived when your heart is allowed to rest in the power and provision of God's mighty hands.
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