Accept No Substitutes
Accept No Substitutes
“Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.” (Exod. 20:4)
The Competition
What do you have that commands your attention and your affection? A ’56 Chevy? An original piece of art? Financial portfolio? Children? Football team? The cottage at the beach or in the mountains? Anything that competes with God for your first affection and attention is an idol. When you allow anything apart from God to rule you, compel you, or control you, you have created an idol.
The Detection
God wants to set you free from enslavement to idols, so detecting and exposing the idols in your life is essential. Prayerfully consider the following list of questions, which are designed to unmask any idols in your heart: What preoccupies or rules your heart, your thoughts, and your time? What compels you, controls you, drives you, motivates you? What gives you a sense of worth? What defines your identity before others? If everything else were taken away, what is the one thing you could not bear to live without? Are you looking to something or someone to provide what only God can?
Always be on guard against anything that pulls you away from God. Tear away the idols from your heart, and devote yourself to God.
Bottom Line
You can make idols out of a lot of good and worthwhile things, even within the church, if they become more important than God. Guard your heart.