While Paul was biding time waiting for Tim and Silas he was struck by all the idols around Athens and it really bothered him (Acts 17: 16-27).
He stood up and acknowledged that the people were all “very religious”. He said in fact they were so religious that they even worshiped “an unknown god”. And he proclaimed to them that they worship what they don’t know but he could point them a god that can actually be known!
He told them of a god that made everything and exists beyond the grandest temples made by human hands. A god that does not need anything and yet gives us everything, even our very lives.
A god that made all of humanity and: “determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. A god that: “did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us”. (Acts 17:26, 27)
This is amazing. This is not a god who we must labor to know and work to appease in order to be approachable. Instead, he is a god who wants to be known and goes out of his way to set us up to know him. He does all the work, we just have to surrender and reach out to him because he is not far from us!
There are so many “idols” that distract us from God. Besides all the glitz and glam of materialism idols can even be subtle things like our hobbies, or even really good things like our work, our service within our churches, and our families.
Let’s not get distracted by all the idols surrounding us that derail us from knowing Jesus. Let’s just relax and slow down and simply extend our reach to the god who is close to us and wants us to know him. Let’s just ask, seek, and simply knock on the door of The One True God, Jesus. He promises to open the door and invite us in.
Barnabas Man 