_{by Trent - originally posted August 30, 2005}

If I say that anything is greater then God, then I have just worshiped that thing while slandering God.

You have heard people do this, and you may not realize it.

The other day someone told me that Jesus has no power over me if I am not walking in obedience. In other words, I can restrict God from blessing me by my own disobedience, or hinder God with my decisions. If God can hinder me then God is greater then me, but If I can hinder God then I am greater then God. Which message was implied? I was being told that I am greater then God, because the lesser will always have to give way to the greater.

A friend of mine asked a Jew in the airport about the thing on top of his head. "I've always wondered what is it with those beanies?" The Jew explained that the head covering makes it possible for God to bless him. Well, what was this guy saying? Who was he worshiping? So, my friend asked directly, "Do you mean that God can't bless you if you don't wear that thing?" When the young man agreed ... "Well, I don't think that I want a god that is weaker then beanies, and so easily hindered."
If the beanies can limit God then the beanies are greater then god, for the lesser must always give way to the greater, and the Jew thought that god was controlled by a hat or lack thereof.

Christianity has its own beanies. Only they go by different names: "devotion," "quiet-time," "study," "prayer," "church attendance," etc. I am not saying that we should avoid these things. I am saying that we do those things because God has brought us near to Him, not so that we can bring God near to us. We do not lay those acts of devotion before God and cash-in on blessings. We respond to God; not He responding to us.

This is a big point of the story of Job. Who are we to worship? Can we prevent God from allowing evil to happen to us, by carefully living upright? If we fall for that lie, then we have ascended above God in our mind, to be in control of Him, and obligating Him to bless us based on our worth.

Ascribe worth to anything but the one true living God, and you are worshiping an idol, whether it be yourself, or devotion, or even the devil - making him out to be some kind of worthy foe that can hinder the work of God.

God is not fighting the satan, He is using him. When God decides to fight, then the battle will be over before it began. Until then, God holds satan together with His might along with the rest of creation ... storing up wrath until there is no more use of the evil one.

Nothing and nobody is greater then God. All things must give way to Him and His will.