Idols of the Heart

     It's easy to look at the Israelites in Exodus 32 and think of them as such fools! How dare they worship other gods after all that the Lord had done for them? We often view them in disgust and think, "I would never do something like that. I'm a GOOD Christian." Well...news flash. Idols aren't just golden statues made out of jewelry, they are anything that you put in the place of God. It's defined as: having a deep, extreme love for something or someone. It's easy still to say, "I don't worship anything or anyone other than God." But do a serious quick-scan of your heart - do you pull your phone out and text while doing your devotions? Do you spend all day with your significant other and forget to spend any time with the person that made them?  Do you work sunrise to sundown without giving the Lord a single thought? Do you desire affection, attention, confirmation or materialistic gain more than you desire a stronger relationship with God? Do you love things more than you love God? All of these things would classify as idolatry. 

     Judging those Israelites who worshiped tangible idols thousands of years ago is much easier than admitting we are also guilty of idol worship. We're inadvertently hypocritical because we don't allow ourselves to see the idols that live within our hearts. It's so important to do a heart check and really diagnose if you have something you're putting before God. Often it's unintentional, and sometimes it's not even a bad thing. Maybe you're working in ministry but you're so busy with the work that you forget for whom you're actually working for. Realizing what your idols are will put you on the road to destroying them, and straightening your priorities. So what do you do? How do you rid yourselves of these idols hidden deep within the heart?

1. Recognize the greatness of God. 

Of course we all know that we have a really cool God. That's not a secret. But it's so important to try and grasp how GOOD God is in scope of how small and minuscule we really are. I love Hebrews 12:29 that says, "For our God is a consuming fire." When we put God on the back burner, we are telling the God of the universe, the God who created all people and all things, that He's not worth our time. We need to put God on the pedestal that He deserves. Realizing His greatness will help us worship Him above all else. 

2. Pray. 

Having constant communication with God helps us to remember that He's here. We obviously can't see God so sometimes in the business of our day, we just forget about Him. Just like a relationship with a significant other, you talk to them multiple times a day, let them know they're on your mind, tell them things that matter to you. That's how it should be with God. Talk to Him and treat Him like the most important thing in your life, because that's what He deserves to be. 

3. Have purposeful & passionate quiet time. 

We should go into our quiet time with God with a purpose. We shouldn't pull out our Bible because it's habit or routine, we pull out our Bible to sit down and read something that will help us in our godly life and walk with the Lord. The first half of Matthew 6 talks a lot about how we should talk to God and have our quiet time. It should be a private moment every day where you purposely make time to read God's love letter to you - that's how He communicates. Texting or checking your email can wait, God is far more important than anything that can be happening on our devices. We should be craving the word of God - just like we rely on food and water to live a healthy physical life, we need the Bible to give us nutrients too. Just food and water won't suffice. So don't read a quick devotional as your walking out the door and count that as your quiet time - set a time out in your day to get to know your First Love. 

     Of course, these things are hard. We constantly have a battle between our flesh and the Spirit. The flesh can't stop sinning and the Spirit can't sin at all. Satan WANTS us to have idols. If we are Christians, Satan doesn't want us to further the Kingdom, so he desperately wants us to put other things ahead of God so we can waste time instead of leading others to Christ. Jesus Christ gave His all for us, for each of our sins. He deserves our whole heart and our whole soul. These idols of the heart that can't be seen have the ability to break our fellowship with Christ and desperately harm our testimonies. Make it your goal to burn those idols and destroy them, and worship the one TRUE God.

                                                                                                                          Stay excellent!