Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. Romans 1:24-25
Idolatry – An Affair of the Heart
The dictionary defines idolatry as the worship of idols. It also gives another definition of idolatry - extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone. As Christians, we know idolatry as this extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone that is not Jeus. When we are walking the Jesus Way, all of our extreme admiration, love, and reverence for something or someone belongs to Him. He sits on the throne of our hearts and there is not room for anyone or anything else. Does that mean we cannot love someone or even something? No. It means that we are not to love someone, or something more than we love Jesus. He deserves first place in our hearts.
Idols lie. They promise what they can never deliver, but they give enough to cause us to want to keep reaching for them over God. The inanimate, lifeless objects speak loudly in our hearts and in our heads, making promises they have no ability to keep. They promise we will be happy if we have just one more _____, or a certain car, or more drugs, alcohol, sex, a bigger house, more clothes, or even more exercise. They promise fulfillment, and happiness, confidence and even love. These manmade relics offer what only the creator of the universe and the creator of man can fulfill. The One who made the one who made them is the only true hope for the longing we expect them to fill. We even realize they fall short and still we try and try again, or try another one, until we come to the end of ourselves, our resources, our people, and lose it all. Then God can work with us. Then we turn to Him and realize that He is the One we were seeking all along.
We exchange the truth of God for the lie of the idol - the lie of our own choosing. Then we worship and serve it. The true root of idolatry is selfishness – we want our desires over what God wants for us. We remove God from the throne and hand it over to whatever we have chosen to be devoted to instead of Him. Idolatry serves something apart from God to gain that which only God can give. And it never satisfies.
Idolatry never starts with the thing we are worshipping apart from God. It always starts with matters of the heart. We misplace our trust in God, trusting in something or someone else who is not trustworthy. We give ourselves freely to that idol, a lesser god, who gives nothing but instead demands everything of us. Sometimes the thing we are seeking is love, and idols never give love. Jonah 2:8 says, Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. God is the only lasting and true source of love. When we forsake Him for idols, we forsake the only place where we can find unconditional and steadfast love.
Our devotion is too valuable to waste on gods that don’t deserve it. Our Heavenly Father truly deserves our devotion and worship. Keep Him on the throne of your heart where He belongs and be vigilant about keeping idols away. Make sure that all your extreme admiration, love and reverence are all reserved for the One True God who truly deserves it.
