Getting rid of idols.
Isaiah 44:9
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit.
1 John 5:21
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Jonah 2:8
Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
Psalm 16:4
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
The Definition according to the Webster Dictionary:
Idolatry
1. the worship of a physical object as a god
2. immoderate attachment or devotion to something
The Definition according to the Esther Habegger Dictionary:
Idolatry
1. Putting something in the place of God, replacing Him with something.
2. Something we enjoy more than God, something we use to consciously satisfy ourselves with other than Him.
3. Anything that we have made so important to ourselves that it hinders us completely from trusting God and living for him.
What do you idolize? Many of us may never sit down and carve a tree trunk into a wooden idol, and sit it on our fireplace mantel and bow every time we pass it. But we’re still very idolatrous, especially today’s culture where everything worldly is idolized. We have teen idols, American Idol, etc. We blow everything up and decide it’s the best, ever. We then let it make us temporarily happy, never actually satisfying us. We even idolize things we don’t have, and decide in our minds and hearts that only that will make us happy. When this happens, then I will trust God. When He gives me that, then everything will be hunky-dory and then I’ll really start living for Him. And everything that we idolize never makes us happy. We are temporarily satisfied, and then empty again. Instead of looking to the One who can satisfy us in every way possible, we continue to stuff ourselves silly with the pleasure and pseudo joy that we get from our idols. Doing that is like trying to pull water from a well with a colander. Completely pointless. And because we’re idolatrous sinners, and not very smart, we do it anyways.
So what are you idolizing? What are you putting before God that you need to lay before God? What are you stuffing yourself silly with that you need to put into its proper place? What are you satisfying yourself with instead of God? Work? Friends? The love of others? What are you letting come between you and God? Finally, how do you think God feels about you filling yourself with worthless garbage instead of him?
Challenge:
Begin to put things in their proper place. Things that God has blessed us with are gifts, but enjoying them and trying in vain to satisfy yourself with them are two very different things. Things that make us happy are good. But when they become our source of satisfaction, we begin to sin, and form an idol. Take those things down off of their podium, off of their place of high standing in your life. Then finally, place God where he belongs. And let him satisfy you.
