God will not play spiritual pat-a-cake with us by allowing us to seek His help while we continue turning to our idols and self-efforts. If God doesn’t seem to be answering our prayers, maybe we need to ask ourselves, “Am I playing spiritual games with God?”
And what about those who might be playing games with their own eternity by claiming a relationship with God and living another way?
Are you familiar with the phrase “idols of the heart”? You see, not all idolatry is characterized by the worship of statues, and even when it is, there are idols of the heart at play, as well. We might say they are the idols behind the idols.
God warned the nation of Israel over and over to repent and turn from their idolatry. Their refusal to do so took them into captivity and cost them the loss of their land, their homes, their freedom, and often their families. And the consequences of idolatry are just as devastating today as they were in Old Testament times! In fact, the New Testament warns us repeatedly about the danger of idolatry.
So, how can we know if we’re guilty of idolatry? Or maybe I should say it this way. Do you recognize the idols that are fighting for control of your heart?
Can religion become an addiction? Can it offer an escape from reality? Worse yet, could it give someone a false sense of security concerning their relationship with God? What would a religious addiction look like? And could churches today be full of people suffering from religious addiction?
Also, read about how the Israelites tried to justify living life their own way and then tried to avoid the consequences of doing so. Could we be doing the same thing today?
Could you be guilty of parental legalism? What do I mean by that? Parental legalism often focuses on behavior as opposed to the heart. These legalists make Christianity all about “the law,” often their own law or house rules. When they do, they run the risk of keeping their children from seeing their need for genuine heart change and a personal relationship with Christ. So … could you have fallen into some parental legalism, perhaps without realizing it?
We’ll also read about how and how not to communicate with a person who is acting like a fool, and how we can sometimes practice idolatry without recognizing it for what it is.
In our Old Testament reading, we’ll see God’s patience come to an end with the Northern Kingdom when He allowed Israel to be taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The Assyrians brought in settlers from other areas to till the land and live there. But when God sent lions to kill them, they decided they needed to learn something about the “god of that land.” Not so they could truly worship Him. They just wanted to tack on a little Jewishness to what they were doing to pacify him. What about us … have we tried to add a little Jesus to our lives … put a Christian veneer over a heart that’s still worshiping other things?
Nothing breaks a parent’s heart more than to see our children make foolish choices that can result in consequences for years to come. But there are some things we can do early on so God doesn’t have to allow more serious consequences later. What are some of those things?
In today’s Old Testament reading, we see God’s swift punishment for idolatry. Though God is patient and merciful with us, it doesn’t mean He’s changed His mind about sin. Sin and idolatry still have painful consequences. But the problem is that idolatry has a blinding effect. And we can become blind to our blindness.
We end up blinded about how we grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin against God, blinded about the extent of our sin and how it hurts others, blinded to the source of our sinful choices, and finally, blinded to how easy it is to justify our sin.
So, how can we tell if something in our lives, even something good, has become an idol?
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