Where Lies Your Devotion: In God or Elsewhere?

Shared on January 12, 2025

Introduction

As we enter this year, I imagine all of us, regardless of age, desire to have a good and successful year.  In these opening days, we are making plans, and devoting ourselves to making it a successful year.  In other words, whatever you have to do, you will likely do if it means success will come your way.  However, I must ask, is God a part of your plan for success or have you given Him little to no thought?  Where lies your devotion? 

Your Devotion Speaks For You

As a child of God, when you desire for good to come your way, God should always be a part of your plan.  You see, what you devote yourself to will speak for you.  Yes, the devotion that’s in your heart will tell God everything about who you are.  So, I certainly hope that you will understand the importance of what you devote yourself to and how you go about achieving what you desire. 

Betraying God By Your Devotion?

In Isaiah 1, we are going to see the importance of devotion in the eyes of God.  Though we will see that the prophet Isaiah was speaking a message concerning those of Judah and Jerusalem (Is. 1:1), God called on the earth to listen to Him (Is. 1:2).  So, let us pay attention to the words of the prophet.

God’s devotion to the children of Israel

Concerning Judah and Jerusalem, the Lord said, “I reared (raised) children and brought them up.”  God had done everything for the children of Israel when the prophet spoke those words.  Remember when they were in the bondage of Egypt?  Did God leave them in bondage (Ex. 14:26-31)?

Remember when God brought them to the Promised Land and how He went before them and gave them the land (Josh. 1:3-6).  When the people wanted a king, He gave them Saul.  After the disaster that was Saul’s reign, God gave them a man after His own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).    The kingdom of Israel prospered so greatly under the reigns of David and Solomon, that other kings and queens even marveled.

Judah turns from God

Yet, we’ll see that God compared Judah to the ox and the donkey – two animals we consider dumb and stubborn.  The Lord said, “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, My people do not consider (Is. 1:3).”

Have you ever heard the saying that someone is as dumb as an ox?  Or have you ever heard it said that someone is as stubborn as a mule (donkey)?  Because Israel did not know Him, after all He had done for Israel, God called them as dumb as an ox in that day.  Because they wouldn’t consider Him, God said that Israel was as stubborn as a mule.  You see, the Lord had sent prophet after prophet to the people but they refused to hear from God.

This refusal to listen to the prophets and to turn to the Lord angered God.  We will see in Isaiah 1:4, that the Lord called them a “sinful nation”.  This was a people that the Lord said had forsaken Him!  To forsake would mean at one time they were once loyal, devoted, and walked with.  

Yet, as the Lord said, the people had “turned away backwards” – they gave their backs to God and betrayed Him.  They betrayed the Lord in their devotion by choosing to walk as a sinner.  Now, ask yourself, did God deserve such a lack of devotion from those of Judah and Jerusalem?  

Does one who is as devoted to mankind as God is deserve such a lack of devotion from man?  You see, we are still living and breathing today, no matter how much we try to destroy each other, because of God’s grace and mercy.  We, mankind, have clothes on our backs, shoes on our feet, and a roof over our heads because God provided such.  

Have we betrayed God?

You see, as God reared up the children of Israel, He has done the same for all of us.  While we may live in want, we don’t live in need because the Lord provides for us and He sustains us.  With this in mind, it should make you wonder whether or not we, today, betray the Lord.

As a child of God, if you’re coming up with a plan for success and God isn’t a part of that plan, something isn’t right.  As a child of God, when you don’t take into consideration all that God has done for you and you choose not to lean on Him, something is off.  

Even worse is that some of God’s children move as if they have completely forgotten God in our devotion.  Why have some of us forgotten God?  Many have forgotten God today because their devotion is too focused on prodigal (worldly) living.  Devotion to worldly living, for the child of God, is devotion that is pointed in the wrong direction.

Jesus’ Concern About the Devotion of Man

In Matthew 6:25-34, we will see where Jesus shared His concern about the devotion of man.  Jesus questioned why we would worry about what we would eat, drink, or even wear.  The reason why Jesus questioned this is because God supplies our every need.  

While many of us do worry about our needs, I have found that a lot of our worries come from what we want.  When we want to possess certain things, we’ll worry about whether or not we will.  When we want things to go a certain way, we will worry about whether or not it will.    Man lived in want thousands and thousands of years ago, and to this day, man still lives in want!

So, while we often look at this passage of scripture and see Jesus teaching about worry and anxiety, I see Jesus sharing another concern.  I believe that Jesus was also focused on man’s incessant need to have.

The concerning need to have the best

This is why we see Jesus, in Matthew 6:26, point to the birds of the air.  Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”  We will then see Jesus use another animal in comparison to us.  Jesus asked, “Are you (mankind) not of more value than they?”

You see, unlike birds, all we do is gather to store up in our barns.  Now, you may say, Pastor, I don’t have a barn!  Oh yes you do, will be my response!  Have you not been paying attention to how much concern we have for our bank accounts?  

We have a devotion to filling up our bank accounts today and why is that?  It’s not necessarily because we’re worried about what we will eat, drink, or wear but because we want more.  We aren’t satisfied with what God has provided for us, we want better.  We want the best of everything— we want the best that the world has to give!

Having the best that the world can give should never be the devotion of one who says they’re a child of God!  Something that we must come to understand today is that obtaining the best of the world is not true success.  Yes, that is success in the eyes of those whose boast is prodigal living, but that is not success in the eyes of God.

True Success in the Eyes of God

So, what is true success in the eyes of God and how do we go about obtaining it?

Jesus tells us that for us to obtain true success, God not only needs to be in the mix, but God needs to be at the forefront of those plans.  Jesus said that we should “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33).”  I hope you paid enough attention to notice that Jesus didn’t say a thing about seeking any kind of success that is of the world!

If you pay close enough attention to that statement from Jesus, He tells us what true success is for us.  You see, true success for us is to become righteous – that which is perfect and without flaw.  We shouldn’t be chasing after that which is of the world because all that is of the world is flawed and will pass away, right?  Yet, many have been led to believe that true success is found in the happiness of prodigal living.

Again, prodigal living won’t bring about true success!  For true success to come your way, you must devote yourself completely to obediently following the Lord!  When I say ‘completely’, I mean all of your devotion and not just some of your devotion.  You see, many of us have gotten into the habit of trying to split our devotion between God and prodigal living.

God Should Be Your Main One

In Matthew 6:24, Jesus stated, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.”  Jesus finished off that statement by saying, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”  So, in other words, you cannot be trying to split your devotion because split devotion is a betrayal!

God is nobody’s sidepiece

In Isaiah 1:11-12, we will see that God got on Judah for how they treated Him in their devotion.  The Lord asked what was the purpose of the offerings that they would try to offer up to Him.  God said to them, “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of the fed cattle.  I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats.”  

God didn’t sound too pleased with their “worship”, did He?  God saw what they were doing as trampling His courts!  These are words that you don’t want to hear from the Lord!

In my key verse, God said, “Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me.  The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.”  God was done being treated as a sidepiece by those of Judah and Jerusalem!  

You see, the people of Judah and Jerusalem were essentially coming to God out of a ritual rather than because they wanted to go to them out of sincerity.  You see, their hearts weren’t in it for God anymore!  Jesus taught that where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be also (Matt. 6:19-21).

Is your heart still in it for the Lord?  Are we falling into the same error of Judah by treating God as a sidepiece— a ritual?  It is very concerning the extent of how little time and devotion we have in our hearts for the Lord today.  Some of you may think that this is about church and prayer, but no, this is about everyday living!  This is about what is in your heart!

Many of us are rarely turning to God today!  The one time that some of us will turn to God is if something has gone wrong or we’re in great want.  You see, those are the moments when we will quickly run to the church, turn to prayer, and go to the pastor or preacher to pray for us.  The other 99% of the time is left with most of us never giving thought to the Lord.

Go back home to God

In Isaiah 1:16-17, we will see where the Lord called on those of Judah and Jerusalem to make a change in their devotion.  

God called on the people to wash themselves and make themselves clean.  The people were to put away the evil of their doing and then cease doing evil.  We should certainly see this as a call of repentance.  The call to repent is even more clear in God’s call to the people to learn to do good.  To succeed, we must also have a change of heart – a change of devotion.

God then called on the people to come back home to Him.  In Isaiah 1:18, the Lord said to the people, “Come now, and let us reason together.”  We need to be like the prodigal son, who recognized the error of prodigal living and chose to leave it behind and go back home (Luke 15:11-32).  When you make such a turn, if you’re living in a worldly manner, God will welcome you back home with open arms.

The Lord then said in Isaiah 1:19, that if one was willing and obedient in their devotion to Him, they would eat the good of the land.  Now, the land that He spoke of was not this earthly land.  No, God was speaking about eating from the land of His kingdom!  

When we choose to live in devotion to the Lord, He promises that He will feed us success!  I much rather eat from the blessings of God than eat from anything that the world desires to feed my soul!  Do you desire the same?  If you do, I challenge you this year to live in devotion to God!