The litmus test for your religion is how you understand Psalm 37:4.
Psalm 34:7 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
What is the first thing that runs through your mind when reading this? Is it
“If I Delight in the Lord I can finally get that __horse/car/house/job__ I always wanted! Let’s get to work on doing some delighting!”
Or is it
“If I delight in the Lord I will finally be free from the bondage of earthly desires and doing the things I hate and will rejoice and have peace with God”
If there is even a niggle of “Now I can get what I’ve always wanted using Goid as the means” your religion is paganism with a veneer of Christian bible verses sprinkled on top to make it acceptable in the culture you live. You desperately need a new perspective.
Paganism at its root is “If I make this god happy by doing a sun dance, rain dance, sacrificing a chicken, etc then the god will be happy and bestow on me the material prosperity I desire. “
This natural human tendency has a long sordid history in the Christian realm. Frequently it is seen in the doctrine of tithing sometimes said like this “If I give God 10% he will make the 90% go further than the 100%” or “If I give God 10% the windows of heaven will open and pour out a blessing! In this context always means material prosperity.
The root of this problem is loving this world more than God and failing to see a right relationship with God as your ultimate treasure. Is Paul’s prayer the heartbeat of your heart?
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7
Is your religion “O that I may know him” or is it “If I do the right thing I will get the ___ I always wanted”
This is the test you must pass with all eternity at stake. Which way is it?
Penuel 