For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged  the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.  Romans 1:21 HCSB

I’m willing to bet that I am not the only person on the planet that has looked around them and thought that those around us seem to be losing their minds. Okay, there I said it out loud. We are seeing a whole lot of crazy going on in this world. Have you ever wondered why this is happening? Well, this scripture passage explains this for us.

If you think about it, people today fall into three categories. They are lost and doing some crazy things. They are saved, but playing around with things they have no business playing around with, or they are saved and are avoiding every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). I have found myself in each of these categories at various points in my life and let me tell you that nothing good comes from the first two. You see we were made to live in fellowship with Jesus. That is our sole purpose in life. We are to live in fellowship with Him and draw others to Him. When we fail to do this our life goes off the rails and we have problems. We were made to praise Him, we were made to glorify Him. When we don’t, well we have problems.

I know people that do things and then they tell me that they do these things and I am scratching my head and thinking, “What were you thinking? That made no sense whatsoever.” But the lost do things that we cannot comprehend. Yesterday I spoke of remembering when we were once lost and were sinners. Looking back on that time in my life I must say I did a lot of stupid things.

So our scripture passage tells us that if we don’t glorify Him that our thinking will become nonsense and our minds will become darkened. By darkened this means that we will be more prone to sin. Sin brings darkness into our lives. We were made to live in the light of God. Now the bad thing about when this happens is that we think we are being smart and making wise decisions.

Now Paul is telling them that they have exchanged an incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, birds, four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Paul is writing this to the Romans at a time when animals and man made things were considered gods, sexual perversion was prevalent, and sin was rampant. Sound familiar?

Because they knew God, but failed to honor Him and thank Him, God gave them over to their sinful desires. Now to me that is really scary. This is scarier than anything we see at Halloween. These people knew God. They had been exposed to Him, but they rejected Him. They failed to praise Him, honor Him, and be thankful to Him.

I beg of you to be very careful. A little sin will take you a long way. We will all one day be held accountable for our actions and for every word that spews forth from our mouths. Today’s scripture passage clearly tells us that if we do not glorify God in the things that we say and do, that God may just give us over to our sin.

In Matthew 10:14 Jesus tells His disciples that if anyone fails to welcome them to move on and shake the dust off of their feet. Matthew 7:6 says do not give dogs what is holy and do not cast your pearls before swine. I don’t know at what point God may say enough is enough, but I know I never want to get there. Even in my sinful days, God was there with me trying to lead me back into His loving shelter. I am so thankful to Him for that.

You are going to spend eternity somewhere my friend. I beg of you to carefully consider your thoughts, your words, and your actions. Do they glorify God? Do you remember to praise Him? Do you thank Him continually? We always have a reason to give God thanks and praise.

What is your heart’s desire today? Is it something that brings glory to God or something that would grieve Him? Whatever it is be very careful, because He may just give you exactly what you desire.

Have a great day!