Articles
Is God Worth Following?
What God are you willing to serve?
There are many people who refuse to follow God because they don’t like what the Bible teaches. “I won’t serve a God who sends people to hell,” some say. “I can’t believe in a God who demands everyone obey Him,” others say. The idea shows up in different ways, but the bottom line remains the same, there are people who won’t follow God unless they deem Him worthy of being followed. By that, don’t they mean that God should only be followed if they like what He teaches. If they agree, then they will believe. But that isn’t following, is it? That is imposing our will and our way on God. That is demanding that God follow us, and then, if He does, we’ll say we are following Him.
I submit that the God worth following is higher than us. Better than us. Smarter than us. More powerful than us. He is worth following because He is right when we are wrong. He can save when we can do nothing. He is worth following simply because He is God. And the one who is God, can ask us to do things we don’t like or agree with but that won’t change the fact that He is still God and still worth following.
Do you agree?
Imagine if God told you to never get married or have children. Would you still follow Him? Imagine if He told you to not mourn those who died. What if God told you not to go to any banquets or celebrations such as weddings or family reunions. Would you still follow Him, or would you deem such a God not to be worthy of following?
It so happens, that Jeremiah was prohibited from such things (Jeremiah 16:1-9). He was told to take no wife for himself or have any children (Jer. 16:2). He was told not to go to the funerals or offer consolation for those who lost their mothers, fathers, or children to diseases (Jer. 16:3-5). Further, Jeremiah was told not to enter into the house of feasting (Jer. 13:8-9). All of these things would certainly seem overbearing to many in the world. Surely this is not a God worth following.
However, the commands had purpose. They served as a warning to the people. Punishment for their sins was coming and the people needed to see why (Jer. 16:10-13). It wasn’t because God wasn’t worth following, but because they had not followed Him and now they would learn the consequence. Call Him mean. Call Him unworthy. Disagree all you want, but you won’t stop the punishment. Not only is this a God worthy of following but one that must be followed. Realizing this, Jeremiah would obey even difficult commands because God was his strength and stronghold (Jer. 16:19). If you want life, love, and good days, then seek the God who offers such things and has the power to either give or take them away (I Pet. 3:10-12). If, however, we walk “according to the stubbornness of our own evil hearts and won’t listen to God” (Jer. 16:12) then we have chosen disaster and judgment.
Are you willing to serve God simply because He is God? If so, then you will not sit in judgment of His teachings to determine if you agree with them or like them. That won’t matter, because He is God. You aren’t.
How do you determine if God is worth following?
