Whenever I asked my mum to go trick or treating for Halloween she would say ‘Hallo-kini‘ which means ‘Hallo- what‘ in Yoruba. Now to my mum who was born and raised in Nigeria the concept of Halloween and celebrating something that focuses on witches, wizards and other dark things was and still is absurd.
Halloween has a lot of dark connotations, we think witchcraft, spells, ghosts and ghouls. Things that as Christians we overtly are against.
Now, I am not here to slay Halloween, because I do not know the origins of it and neither am I really interested to be honest. But like Halloween, there are many things in life, I don’t know the origins of or fully agree with but still find myself engaged in and sometimes celebrating.
Is this bad? Not necessarily. Are these things evil or against God? Nope, not necessarily.
What is against God is when these things take number 1 priority. Especially as He commands us not to:
have any God besides Him
(Exodus 20:3-5)
Many of these things start of as healthy desires and aspirations but can slowly and subtly evolve into mini idols and end up being things hallowed; revered, worshiped and held in high esteem.
Some of my past and present idols are:
- my career
- money
- certain relationships
- material things like clothes, shoes, bags
And I could go on…
These things have at one point taken precedence over God. I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally set out to place these things above God. But sometimes they consume my thoughts, actions and days thus becoming mini-gods.
Many of us do not celebrate Halloween because we associate it with things that are ‘anti-Christ’. The truth is, in our lives we celebrate and exalt many things that we shouldn’t which is actually a form of idol worshipping and is ‘anti-Christ’.
On the this Hallows eve I encourage you to think back to all the things that you have placed above God.
The things that you have made number 1 in your life that has nothing or very little to do with God or His Kingdom.
This could be anything, even ‘good things’ such as your family, ministry, relationships, personal goals and achievements.
Ideally, everything should be under God in your life. But it’s really easy for this not to be the case. Our focus can shift and priorities subconsciously rejigged. Which can be a problem.
One day to the penultimate month of the year and I’m about to take stock of these idols, dark thoughts and ungodly desires so they can be dashed and dethroned.
So The One who owns my life and destiny can sit comfortably in that esteemed positon in my heart and life.
Happy Hallows Eve (A Godly one)
In truth and with love
Faith xox
Good for your Mum!! She was right on it!! We must remember that Satan is the ruler of the world at this time (1 John 5:19) Satan is crafty. A few coloured lights (or fireworks), some nice food, music, a little drink (or a lot) and he gets millions caught up in celebrations that are rooted in false worship and displease God. So yes it is well worth looking into the origins of any celebration before joining in ourselves (A good encyclopedia is a good start for this subject).
Does it matter to God? Absolutely!! Eph 5:10 says “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord”, so everything we believe, everything we do, the decisions we make each day, large or small, should be acceptable to the Lord according to His standards of righteousness shown in the scriptures. We want to be acceptable to God in everything we do. We need to “Keep on making sure” so its an ongoing process of checking and discarding anything that would be unacceptable to him. Rev 18:4 says “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” We want to be clean and avoid any belief or celebration that is unclean in the eyes of God. We do not want to receive part of the plague of adverse judgement coming upon those who do not worship God in the way that is approved by him.
hmm, it is true we ought to be careful the things we get involved in. Our aim should be to live a life that is pleasing to God. Thank you for sharing x
Another amazing post! Xx