Over the past several days, I have been conversing with a group of godly women who always have a “side B” to my “side A.” I love our conversations because I am challenged to think and apply parts of those conversations to life. While talking with a friend today, the subject of idolatry came up, and the question was, “What do we idolize more than spending time with God?” When we think of having idols, we think of large, tangible material things like statues, jobs, money, cars, houses, status, etc. Sometimes, we would like to believe that we don’t have any idols because the Word tells not to in Exodus 20:3-4, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” But because we are human, we all have an idol or idols. The question is, if we were to take a personal inventory of our lives, what keeps us away from our quiet time, bible reading, or prayer?
Galatians 5:19-21(MSG) states, “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
Wow! Let’s think about what or who gets in our way of spending quality quiet time with God? Look at this short assessment and how many of these idols apply to your life. Feel free to think about some others.
- self-absorption
- approval from others
- relationships not God-ordained
- success
- wealth
- vanity
- food
- luxury
- cars
- friends
- hobbies (extra-curricular activities)
- spouse/husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/children
- housekeeping
- obsession
- phones
- computer
- gaming systems
- social media
- music
- sports
- adultery
- entertaining
- reputation (public perception)
- busyness
- ??????
Why do we serve so many idols? Perhaps we feel that idols do something big and amazing or, idols give us fulfillment in certain areas of our lives. There are so many idols in our world that if we are not cognizant of their existence we fall right into the trap of owning them. We must wonder why we succumb to these idols. Are we trying to fit into the world in which we live? Is it a subconscious decision? Are we fearful of what we will learn or hear if we spend time with the Lord? What are your answers? When we look at how we spend our time, there is a correlation between time spent and what we value. If we sit still and re-evaluate our time, we might be shocked at the results.
In this list, there may be one or several idols that distract us from spending time with God. As I talked with my community of women, we shared our thoughts about idols and sermons that had a profound effect on us. Through our discussion, there was one idol that made me shiver: the church. Yes, that’s right, the church. How easy is it for us to idolize the church, forgetting that the church is not the building but the people. We have to be careful that we don’t put pastors and others in leadership on a pedestal. At the end of the day, they are just men and women. When our perception is skewed, ⁰how are the other parts of our lives impacted? For instance, do we give more financially because the pastor says to do so or did the Lord’s leading speak to you? Do we put the needs of the “church” over our families? Have we given so much of ourselves to the church at the leading of its pastors until there is nothing left? Are we so caught up in the worship of man that we blur the lines in worshipping God? Does idolizing the church change our personality? And do we find ourselves getting defensive if this idol is brought to our attention? We should really give thought to if we are idolizing the pastors and missing the true meaning of worshiping God, what type of word are receiving? Is it the truth? Is it an authentic Word?
We have to wonder what happens that causes leaders to misplace the focus of the Word and take their eyes off of the people. What are the idols of the church and why do they exist? Is it lack of vision? Is there a motivation to increase numbers and the size of the church building? Is it the influence of other churches that causes a skeptical alliance? Is it impatience with the progress that subjects the church to greed? We may not have the answers to these questions, but we definitely have a need to pray for our pastors and others in leadership. If the church and its leadership are subjected to idolatry, why would we think that we are exempt? We must ask ourselves, who do we serve?
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