Adore Him

How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him!

1 Kings 18:21

Today's Reading

[Elijah said,] “You have refused to obey the commands of the LORD and have worshiped the images of Baal instead. Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.”

So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.

Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the LORD who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

1 Kings 18:18-24

All of Advent, in the nave and the sanctuary, in the arching dome of a longing heart, it rises like a winding ribbon of incense: “Come, let us adore Him.”

Let us leave the wrapping and the decking and the performing and come, awe at God.

Your hands need not bring anything of your own making. What God wants for Christmas is simply your bended knee.

They say that when you waver between two opinions, between two gods, the literal Hebrew word for wavering means sinking. It’s our wavering between gods that has us sinking. It’s the wavering between the gods of things and the God of everything—that’s what has us flailing and drowning soundless in it all.

We were made to worship—our internal circuitry wired to worship. Every moment you live, you live bowed to something. And if you don’t choose God, you’ll bow down before something else—some banal Baal. Baal isn’t the name of one particular god; it’s the name of any generic god. Elijah confronted the people about their wavering, their sinking, between the God of Abraham and the Baal of rain. And for us, too, there are other Baals that can be our sinking. The Baal of success and the Baal of Pinterest, the Baal of perfection and the Baal of affirmation. It’s always Baals that keep us from God, the Baals of work and agenda and accomplishment that keep us from prayer. We don’t pray enough only when we are practicing idol worship.

You can see how it goes—how there at the altars the Baal worshipers danced for rain. They strove and they flailed and they kept focused on trying to get all the steps just perfectly right—and that is how you ultimately know.

You know you have an idol whenever you have to perform.

You know you have a Baal that needs to be cut down whenever you cut yourself down. Whenever you slash yourself, you have an idol that needs to be slashed down.

Because that is what every idol ultimately wants: to make your blood run wild and dance you mad and drive you right into the unforgiving ground. Every idol wants you to be cut open for it.

But if you slow and still and wait, Advent whispers to you: there is one God who was cut open for you. He let His blood run so you can stop running. “The only way to overcome idols in your life,” beckons Tim Keller, “is to see that Jesus gives you freely what every other god says that you can only get through your performance. Jesus gives you through His blood what every other god demands through yours.”^a

Jesus, the Gift, comes to give you freely through His passion what every other god forces you to get through your performance.

There in the nave, in the sanctuary, in the vaulting cathedral of your soul, you can hear how the notes come—one quaking, grateful note after another—as worship to the infant God who comes to the manger, the only God who comes to the wood on the altar, the God who takes the fire and who is the sacrifice to take you.

And you let everything go. And kneel. Kneel here and behold only Him—the only place where you can receive the gift of acceptance, so the gods of acceptance have no hold on you.

O come, let us adore Him . . .

The notes burning like a fire in the heart.

Unwrapping More of His Love in the World

Think of the Baals in your life—things you set your heart on besides the one true God. What is one thing you can do today to loosen the grip of one of those idols in your life?

Give me the Love that leads the way

The faith that nothing can dismay,

The hope no disappointments tire,

The passion that will burn like fire

Let me not sink to be a clod

Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

AMY CARMICHAEL

A Moment for Reflection

What emotions are evoked in you when you realize that God doesn’t expect you to perform for Him—that He has already given you everything?

What sets God apart from every Baal, from every false god?

Set aside some time in the nave, in the sanctuary of your own heart, to come and adore Him.