The good things God gives us, indeed the very best of earthly blessings, can awaken us at night and produce racing thoughts. They can cause us to become anxious at the thought of losing them. This is true even for someone who genuinely loves the Lord. Let me give you a recent example.
I was getting bids for remodeling the office. This is a good thing, right? After all, the office space pays the bills, enables me to help others, and is a venue to glorify God. There was nothing inherently sinful about the project, and nothing wrong with investing time, money, and effort into it. In fact, I believed God was leading me to do it! But somewhere in the middle of contractor bids, I found myself lying awake at 2 a.m., my mind churning over decisions that, in the light of eternity, carried almost no weight at all. Something was stealing my peace. That’s when it hit me. I had removed God from the throne of this particular good thing in my life. I had installed myself in His place. This can happen with ANY good thing God gives us—our children, possessions, projects, indeed, even ministry! We hoard or worry about losing the good thing, and suddenly we find we’ve lost our peace!
God warned His people about how we lose peace:
“For thus says the Lord: ‘Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people, [My] lovingkindness and mercies.’Then you shall say to them, “Because your fathers have forsaken Me,” says the Lord; “they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.” (Jeremiah 16:5, 11-13)
Notice the phrase “serve other gods day and night.” This is not a poetic exaggeration. It’s a spot-on diagnosis of what happens when something other than God dominates ANY area of our lives. You see, nothing about the remodel itself was the problem. A home renovation, a business venture, a hobby, a dream you’ve nurtured for years—none of these things are inherently sinful. In fact, they can become instruments of God’s glory when they’re surrendered to Him and carried out according to His will. A remodeled home can become a place of hospitality where neighbors experience genuine kindness and hear the Gospel over dinner. A business can become a platform for integrity and generosity that points people toward Christ.
Stewardship of any blessing, when done GOD’s WAY, honors God, who supplied the good thing in the first place.
The trouble starts when we take a blessing God has given us and turn it into an object of worship rather than an offering of worship.
We stop asking whether it serves His glory and His mission and start defending it as though our identity depends on its outcome. A dead-on sign of idolatry is when we become anxious about the results. If losing the thing, or having it turn out imperfectly, sends us into a spiral of worry and sleeplessness, we need to re-evaluate. We are, in Jeremiah’s words, serving this god “day and night.” Jesus gave us a remarkably simple test for measuring this:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” (Matthew 12:30)
I’ve started applying this test to every undertaking in my life, and it has a wonderfully clarifying effect. Is this project, this pursuit, this time I’m using right now, or this ambition being carried out for God’s glory? Is it being surrendered to His timing? Or has the project itself (or the person) become the objective at the cost of my real purpose of glorifying God?
When everything I hold dear is redefined by God’s glory, then every obstacle, every delay, becomes God’s problem to manage rather than mine to control.
God’s peace, which surpasses understanding, guards my heart precisely because I’ve stopped trying to guard the outcome myself. I’m still learning this critical lesson. I don’t always catch the moment my heart drifts from surrender into striving, but God is teaching me that my lack of peace is the most accurate bellwether.
The disproportionate frustration over something that doesn’t carry eternal weight is a signal to check who’s sitting on the throne of that area of my life.
God isn’t necessarily asking us to abandon our homes, our work, our dreams, or our ambitions. Rather, He asks that we hold every one of them with an open hand, gathered under His lordship rather than in pursuit of our own kingdom. When we do, we trade the exhausting slavery of serving other gods “day and night” for the settled, steady peace of serving the One true God, who never fails.
Prayer:
Lord, I confess that it is far too easy for me to let good things become gods. I don’t want to serve anyone except You. Reveal to me anywhere I have set something else on the throne that belongs only to You. Help me hold every project, every plan, and every dream with open hands, surrendered fully to Your will and Your timing. Thank You for Your lovingkindness and mercies that are from everlasting to everlasting. Flood my life with Your peace, and let my life reflect that You alone are Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
