Worthless Things

Psalm 119:37 (ESV) Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

 

We are so often distracted by stuff: stuff that is in no way important to our mission, stuff that is just contrary to peace and unity, and stuff that keeps us bound and discouraged. Have you ever noticed that some of the biggest dust-ups in our churches are over things that have nothing to do with anyone’s salvation?

 

The colors that people will wear for Choir Day or Church Anniversary, or which suits the usher board will wear on the 3^rd Sunday are IRRELEVANT! Yes, we need order, but we don’t need to have meetings on top of meetings about subjects that have nothing to do with soul business. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get people to spend money, dress up and come to a church banquet, but almost impossible to get them to show up to a free Bible study?

 

We each need to pray as the psalmist did in our selected verse: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”  If every saved individual would intentionally focus on things eternal, we would have less religious stuff destroying our churches and relationships with other believers. There is life in the Word of God, so that’s where we should be focusing our attention.

 

If we spent half as much energy studying the Scriptures as we spent meeting about stuff, how many more souls would be added to the church?  It isn’t naïve to think the Word of God is enough to fill our churches. God’s Word can do far more with the heart than we can even fathom doing with our programs and services. The love that will be generated from the new life will spill out into the streets and compel men and women to come.