Recently I have been given some thought or reflection to the concept of positioning. For example, if you own fine china, you may want to position your fine china on the top shelf of your hutch for protection, while placing your paper or plastic plates on the lower shelf for casual use. Here's the point. Things we typically love or esteem tend to rise to the top, while those less in value are lowered to the bottom.
I also believe that we can use positioning as it relates to friends, cars, clothing, homes, schools, and even churches. Positioning becomes a natural way of keeping order to our world and bringing value to things that are most important to us. In addition, we also tend to give our primary focus to those things on top rather than those things on the bottom.
So how does positioning relate to God?
Over the years I have observed a large number of people who openly proclaim their love for God by calling Him their Lord. The word, Lord, denotes thee highest position one can attain. We're talking - top shelf! Unfortunately, as life unfolds with a number of challenges, our tendency is to position ourselves ahead of God, suggesting that maybe we can control our situation better than "upper" management. No, we don't want to fire God. But, we could at least move him into second position. BUT WILL GOD STAY THERE?
Now, here comes the bomb. When God proclaimed to us that we are to have "no other gods" before Him, what He is essentially saying to us is that He will not be reduced to a lower position. Indeed, He cannot, for His very nature is above all things (Colossians 1:16). Either God is number one or He may as well be number 7928388497... to infinity. Of course, it's not that we want to eliminate God altogether. In fact, last I checked - number # 2 is still good, right? But we deeply wrestle with God's supremacy.
John Piper once wrote, "All sin is the result of lowering the supremacy of God in our lives."
So, what position does God have in your life today? Top shelf or 7928388497? The Disciple John writes, "He must become greater, I must become less" (John 3:30). I think John has it right.
My prayer is that we all get a little "John" in us this week.
