Kings/ Choices

"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
John 19:14b-15

Jesus is our King, proclaimed here even from the mouth of Pilate. We were created for one primary reason, to love the Lord, with everything we are made of, as summed up in the first and greatest commandment, and to worship Him alone. God's people, both the natural (our Jewish siblings) and thoses grafted in branches (those from the other flock Jesus told his disciples about, non-Jews, all who believe). But there is a flawed trait, a corrupted idolatrous, adulterous character, that causes His most precious masterpieces to chase lesser kings, worthless things, prostituting themselves, trading positions of privilege for worthless legacies of curses and judgement.

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights." But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. "
1 Samuel 8:6-9, 19, 20

Who is your king, who has control and authority over you? Who, or what, is the number one thing that you think of, dwell on, has sway over you? Is it a career, a person, an item? If your honest, real answer is anything other than the King of Kings, then you are in a prodigal place, and the Father desperately wants you to come back home.
There will only ever be one King, one Father, one Bridegroom for us, His Creation, and nothing will ever satisfy or fill that "God-shaped vacuum" except the Uncreated Creator.
No matter where you are, what you have done, what line or boundary you have violated,
it's never too far or too late.
Come home today.