Emotional Involvement with God

Emotional Involvement with God    - June 22, 2009

An article in one of our local papers told about a fellow who did his
masters thesis on the stress experienced by teenage athletes. This
school psychologist concluded that teenage athletics is a religion—the
passion for the game, the cheerleaders stirring the crowd to an
emotional frenzy. As the clock ticks down the final seconds, the two
teams go into overtime. We rarely criticize such emotional involvement
except when there is emotional involvement with God. After all we don’t
want to be radical!  

Getting excited about basketball is only natural. But why get all
excited about God? Why get emotionally involved with Jesus Christ? The
point is this: If you are going to participate in a religion, you had
better get involved in true religion rather than false religion. Now
basketball is not innately evil. It is a game. Basketball is not a god
nor are basketball games religious services. But to treat them as such
is to engage in false worship. Better that you should engage in true
worship of the God of the Bible. Better that you should become
emotionally involved with Jesus Christ.  

The First of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods
before Me” (Exodus 20:3). False worship is sin. Jesus Christ died to pay
the penalty for sin due to people like you and me. When you turn from
false worship, you must turn to Christ. When you turn to Christ, you
must trust in the sacrifice of Christ as the only payment for your sins
of false worship. Quite frankly, you must become emotionally involved
with Christ. You see, true faith is a matter of heart. It involves your
mind, your will, and your emotions.

Contributed by Dr. Dennis J. Prutow