Relocating your Idols

You can’t dismantle idols by habits, they have to be cast out by a greater God.

When you haven’t heard His voice, seen His presence, noticed His nearness, or witnessed His object lessons, you have hard evidence that the enjoyment of Him is nowhere to be found. What is most likely happening is you are relocating your idols. Whether they are back on your side tables, placed as a centerpiece, or shoved in the secret spots of your life so no one knows, your attention has been given to relocating your idols. 

When Rachel and Jacob fled from Laban, Rachel grabbed her Father’s gods, because she thought they are of value and will give her a sense of wealth. When Laban pursues them to ask why they fled in secret and why His gods were stolen, Rachel hides them in a sack and sits on them—telling her father she can’t get up because “the way of the woman is upon me.” She was hiding what she prized as a possession. Her craving was having something of value. 

A list of modern day idols is not needed for this entry, but it is important to identify what is drawing your attention away from hearing Jesus, seeing Him, and learning how He moves about your day. 

God begins his life giving precepts with a simple, “There are no other gods beside me. Do not make up some fake image and worship it.” He knows how prone we are to abandon faith in Him for the logic in another carved image. We worship what we give our time to. We bow down to what controls us. We give our hearts and minds to the things that we think are most important. 

What’s sad is, when someone confesses they have an empty relationship with Emmanuel, they believe it is by a list of joyless disciplines that their relationship with God will be restored. It’s the typical, “I know I need to read my bible more,” or “Yes, I know I need to dedicate more time to pray.” Wow, what a miserable faith someone must have to consolidate the almighty God down to a few tasks. 

The reason it seems that having a restored exuberant faith in Jesus is so out of reach is because you have Idols, and Idols possess power. You can’t dismantle idols by habits, they have to be cast out by a greater God. 

God is to be worshipped alone. He will not share the throne of your heart. He didn’t dwell in the temple when the priest defiled it, and He won’t share His throne in your life when you have relocated idols to the Most Holy place. He is so good that He will let you taste the pain from your idolatry so that brokenness can take place. It is there He will pick you back up again and take you to your idols and say, “Let me fight your battle and dismantle these carved images—you need only to be silent.” But silence is hard. Waiting on the Lord is based on faith. I won’t get the emotional highs I get from my idols right away. I don’t want to go back to reading every morning, praying every night, and doing good deeds. If this is how you think Jehovah is going to fill your life with his glory, then you must have Him confused with another god. 

Your idols cannot be shuffled around in your life in an attempt to put God first. You can’t shove them into a camel pack and sit on them when God brings His Holy Spirit to convict you. We cannot be His chosen race if we do not give up everything we have and follow Him. The idolatry has to be addressed with Jesus. He conquers, not us. Are we really giving the same power to our spiritual disciplines as we are to the victor over death? 

Our starting place is dependency. Before your brain rattles off a list of to-do’s for the Lord, ask Him earnestly to demolish the altars you have built and to set up His throne in your heart once again. Name the idols while you call on His name. Don’t let the day pass by you without sending out the beggar’s incense prayer to the throne of heaven. Ask Him for the desire. Ask to see Him, Hear Him, and feel His presence. You cannot eradicate idols with good habits. They have to be consumed by God. He gives you the affection for himself. He places faith inside your chest. He offers salvation. He forgives sins. Your disciplines are only a result of the affection He gives you—and the reason your habits lack joy is that you have tried to gain delight by duty. Delight forms disciplines, not the other way around. 

I hope by the end of this reading, my heart and yours are reminded that He gives Faith. Our first step to making Him first in our lives is to ask Him to show us Himself in our day. Discovering God in our time on earth creates such in an infatuation for His presence that our Idols just somehow disappear. It’s not that they are put away, it’s that God has removed them with a greater affection. It’s expulsive.