The Golden Cows

Monkey Illustration

There was a study done where there was a monkey with his fist trapped inside a container. The monkey had reached in the container and grabbed a handful of peanuts. The monkey upon clutching a fistful of peanuts trapped himself because he could not pull his hand out. Therefore he was unable to get free. Yet he could have let the peanuts go but he would not.

The monkey wants freedom and peanuts, and he cannot have both. He must leave the peanuts if he wants to get away. As a matter of fact, he will lose both peanuts and freedom if he hangs on too long.

Application:

And we are caught in a similar bind. We long to be free of earthly entanglements to serve God in the Spirit. Yet we cling to something more elusive than peanuts. We may only want enough. But without realizing it, we redefine enough again and again with the passage of time. Others of us want to have as much as we can get. So we trap ourselves because we will not let go of the man-made god which has trapped us. Therefore, we lose our freedom and end up in bondage.

(John White pg. 48)

Altar Call: God is calling us today. He is saying, "Whoever is for me, come to me!"

The key to overcoming man-made gods is to take more time to devote yourself to meet with Him by worshipping Him, learning about Him, serving Him, and this will give you less time to fall into the worship of man-made gods.