Idols

I have been reading through Jeremiah and Isaiah over the past couple of months.  I thought they would be depressing judgements of God but in reality, they are filled with messages of hope and redemption.  I have caught myself laughing at the way God communicates to His people.  The pictures He makes with His words are often humorous while being painfully accurate.  I also thought that the ancient Israeli kingdoms were taken into captivity because of their many grievous sins against God.  But as I have poured over these scriptures, I have realized that the most grievous sin committed against God by Israel was idolatry.

Idolatry is defined by dictionary.com as “excessive or blind adoration [of any person or thing].”  Jeremiah and Isaiah spend most of their time calling God’s people to turn away from the objects of their worship and come back to the One true God. And God told His people exactly how He felt about them looking for other sources of salvation or hope.  In the entire first part of Jeremiah, He calls His own people whores because they are chasing after so many other gods.

One of my favorite chapters is Isaiah 44.  It’s like God doing a cosmic face palm.

[The carpenter] cut down cedars,
    or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
    or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
It is used as fuel for burning;
    some of it he takes and warms himself,
    he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
    he makes an idol and bows down to it.
Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
    over it he prepares his meal,
    he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
    “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
    he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
    “Save me! You are my god!”
They know nothing, they understand nothing;
    their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
    and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
No one stops to think,
    no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
    I even baked bread over its coals,
    I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
    Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”  Isaiah 44:14-19

And these books make me think about the idols in my own life.  I’m not talking about family or possessions or all the normal “church” answers.  I’m talking about real, day to day objects that are your focus of excessive adoration.  Right now, for me, that’s a video game.  Go ahead and laugh, I’m appalled to admit it myself. 

“Dear Jesus, I would rather play this searching for missing objects game for 8 hours a day than spend time in your Word and talk with you in intimate conversation.  That’s how much Your sacrifice means to me.“ 

Ouch, that hurts.

So how did this silly little game become such a big deal to me?  I’m a stay-at-home Mom now.  And as much as I love being available emotionally to my family each night, I have a hard time staying motivated to do housework. When can I ever really say that I have finished the dishes or laundry or cleaning the living room? Never.  I never finish anything.  But this little game, it gives me a since of accomplishment.  I can finish one quest or a series of quests and I never have to do it again.  It is completed.  So, instead of turning to God for Him to show me how He meets my need to have something finished, I have turned to this little idol.

One of the other life lessons that God has shown me through these books is that idolatry was the real reason we had to leave Vienna.  Our ministry had become our god.  We spent every waking moment, and many sleeping ones, dwelling on what we could do through our ministry to save the world.  We totally left God out of the equation.  So the One true God ripped our ministry, our idol, our god away from us so that our focus would return to Him.  It is painful to admit that we had misplaced our focus; our ministry really can’t save anyone, only Jesus can do that.  But, sadly, I think many ministers and missionaries would come to the same conclusion if they only had the time to be still before the Lord instead of hanging around with their idols so much.

So how do you know when something has become an idol in your life?  You should ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you blindly adore.  This could be something you have carried with you most of your life, something that has only recently surfaced or even something that is ingrained in your culture. Here is what He showed me. 

This object may be my god if:

• I think about it or talk about it all day long.
• I dream about it.
• I get upset when someone says bad things about it or has different ideas than I do about it.
• I have intense pride when someone compliments my object.
• I am almost distraught when I can’t be with it or when someone else has it.
• I am willing to sacrifice important things I need to survive to be with it i.e. eating, drinking, recovering from sickness, sleep, etc.
• I try to get all the other people I know to make it important in their lives, too. 
• And I get upset when they don’t make it important.
• I have an intense emotional attachment to it.

There may be other cues in your own life that the Spirit will show you.  Ask Him, but be aware that there are consequences for asking this question.  Leaving a video game behind has been far less painful than leaving Vienna, but it’s still a challenge each day to stay away from it. 

The Spirit has filled my heart with more of Him to take the place of my idol.  I have a greater desire to read His Word, which is fantastic, and an intense desire to write.  I love to write, but honestly, some of the things He asks me to write about are difficult, and they make me quite vulnerable.  On the other hand, He has given me something to make me feel accomplished.  Each time I post another blog, I take a deep breath and say, “That’s finished.”