Uncovering Idols

It occurred to me recently that idols don't necessarily look bad.

In fact, they look really good.

Precious to be exact.

That's why uncovering idols can be difficult for us to uncover inside our heart. Because the idols we cherish can be the things we hold dearest to our hearts like our family or our home. We love our family. They are precious to us. And the home we live in becomes even more precious because that's where memories are established. So the home and material possessions we hold dearest to our hearts can even keep our heart from treasuring Jesus.  Gulp. That's a hard one to swallow.

The reason it's so easy to place "good things" before Jesus is because they are good!  Most of us think of idol worship as depicted in the bible where pagans set up an altar to worship a deaf, mute idol. As followers of Christ, we would never do that, but we actually do that when we place all our energy, all our desire, all our confidence, and all our worth to worship the good things in our life. This thought pierced my heart when I considered how I can place my affection toward "good things of life" before adoring my LORD. Even these, no matter how good they are, are not supposed to take the place of my LORD.

Idolatry is simply anything or object we adore before adoring God. It's placing our heart's devotion toward other things besides being devoted first to God. Maybe you worship your kids or the things you get to do through your kids. Maybe you worship your husband or your boyfriend. Maybe you worship your home or your vacation getaway. Maybe its your hobbie, or sport, or your appearance. Perhaps its your job or a skill you have mastered. What is it that you are worshipping and adoring more than God?

Just because believers aren't worshipping fertility or nature gods or any other kind of god doesn't mean we don't fall into worshipping idols.We do. The problem is we can't see it sometimes because what we worship doesn't look bad. Be careful and examine who your affections run toward. Ask God to give you eyes to see and a desire to love Him and know Him more. When we place the good things before God, we miss knowing Him more and serving Him. We miss being able to love Him with our, "whole heart" (Deuteronomy 6:5).

The bible says God is a, "jealous God" (Exodus 20:5).

Isaiah 42:8 says,"I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.

It's time to uncover those idols that are "good things" and place them back where they belong- after God not before Him.