No More Idols

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1 John 5 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21, NIV)

“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
What does my heart love, revere, admire, seek after, long for, want more than God? I think this is the question to ask when we are trying to see the things/people that we may have set up in our hearts as idols. I don't think they are easy for us to recognize in ourselves. 

Love of stuff, worship of people is so much of the substance of our culture that I find it difficult to identify in myself. It just seems normal.  It is normal. Pride, greed, self, money, sex and power are part of the “American dream.”

To keep ourselves from idols takes the power of Jesus and some choices that may feel painful when first made. It’s always hard to let go of familiar loves/lovers, is it not?  But we can only fully embrace God as God if our arms/hearts are not already full of others. This relationship with God is always a wholehearted endeavor or nothing. 

Cool thing is, Jesus will even help us to love him wholeheartedly, if we ask for help and actually want his help.

I grew up on standard American culture and was fully indoctrinated by popular media with a potent dose of American idolatry.  Not the graven images of the Old Testament or the exotic statutes we saw in India, but the “American Idols,” if you will.

For a long time personal appearance was an idol I served.  It offered me something mimicking love, affection and security if I would give myself to it.  It required the sacrifice of time, money, and the neglect of growth of my character, and much of any thought or care I could offer to others.  It held me for many years and partially manifested in a desire for things.

“Things” had an especially strong pull on me.  Anytime I would go into a store, I just longed for so many things.  I had a feeling of needing new and beautiful clothes and the newest coolest stuff to feel good about myself.  I remember, after walking with Jesus for a while, I noticed this pull when I would go shopping.  I specifically recall asking Jesus to set me free from this longing for stuff.  I don’t think I knew it as idolatry at the time, but I somehow knew it was messed up.

I can’t tell you how long it took, and it’s probably not yet finished, but I can tell you that my shopping experience now is much different. Stuff just doesn’t capture my heart like it used to.  And this is a very cool thing because I have much more time, money, thought energy and heart availability in which to love God and love other people.  The shift came as I increasingly engaged with Jesus and as I wanted, and asked for freedom.

I just really love how God gives us instructions for our own life-giving-good, but then is so kind, powerful and faithful to help us live out those instructions!


POINT OF ACTION:
Dear Children, keep yourselves from idols.  What holds your heart, time, attention more than God?  Ask Him to show you.  Ask Him to set you free.  Forsake any idols He reveals to you.  The payoff is real, abundant life that lasts forever.


PRAYER:
Jesus, I want to be 100% yours.  Paint my idols bright red so I can clearly see them.  Break the power they have over me and continue to help me to forsake all others to be all yours.


WHO AM I?
I am Lisa Kirby.  When I was in India, I got to share a testimony (through a translator) with some village people who live in a culture of many gods.  I told them about the gods of America and how worshiping Jesus was so much better than giving myself to these other gods I had worshipped for so long.  At the end of the sharing, I told them they could choose Jesus over their other gods as well, to just stand up if they wanted Jesus. Quite a few in this crowd of people stood to their feet and I prayed over them.  Jesus will take us from wherever we are toward Himself if we just ask. I trust that He is even now revealing Himself and His loveliness to these precious souls who said “yes” to him that day.  Only the One True God can do that.