Idols: We all have them
Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me."
As a Christian I have taken to heart that God will forever will reign supreme in my life. I hold no one above Him, including my husband and my family, at least that is what I like to say. We are a fallen people, a fallen society, and we are no match for the glory of God. It says in Romans 3:23-24 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Even though we are no match for the grace, forgiveness, and compassion that is of God, we can hold true to the fact it is through Him that we can experience grace and redemption because of what Christ did for us on the cross.
So, what does all of this have to do with idols? Well, we all have something that we hold higher than God at times and hence we fall short of the glory of God. I do not know very many people that will jump up, shout from the roof tops, and say, " I MAKE ______________ AN IDOL!!" We have idols all around us, I mean take for instance, "American Idol". We vote for the person we idolize the most on a singing competition. We all have an idol and mine was brought to my attention by a friend earlier this week after he read my last post about my yearning and longing for motherhood. This Aggie said to me, "Nothing wrong with that yearning/dream at all! Just don't let it become an idol. Surrender/give it back to Him and ask for peace until the time is right. Then watch and see what He does, regardless of the outcome." His response, especially the last part, hit me hard and pains me to my core, but it was something I needed to read. I admit with everything in me that I HAVE made wanting to be a mom an idol. I have put it over the happiness of my marriage and over God's perfect timing for my life. I am human and have earthly desires, but when those desires become bigger and higher than God... I am in need of a serious intervention from the Holy Spirit and I am thankful for those He brings along beside me to help be His voice.
It says in Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thought than your thoughts." I have to repeat that to myself daily. He has bigger plans for me than I could ever imagine, but it all has to come to fruition in His timing and not mine. It has to be His way, not mine. Technically, it's His way or the highway. His timing and His ways have more strength than we (I) could ever muster. They have more power than we (I) could ever wish to acquire. His dreams for us are powerful, yet graceful. His ways are strong, yet gentle on our hearts. We have to set our minds on what and who is above and not on what and who is on earth. To be honest, your eyes on anything or anyone else will drive you to a place without God's voice. Anything and anyone else will fail you at some point in time, BUT God will NEVER fail you nor will He forsake you. On a side note, I love the word BUT in the Bible... Let's look and take in the verses below:
Ephesians 2:3-4 "Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."
Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Matthew 19:26 "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Romans 5:8 "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Their are many many more than just the ones above, but let's look at just these few. Look at the words that come before "but": fail, wrath, impossible, die... Without God we would fail, without God we would have endured the wrath that Christ suffered for us, without God everything would be impossible, without God we would not have eternal life with our Father in heaven, that because of Christ we can know, without a doubt, that we will see Christ's face when we pass into heaven.
Look at what we are missing when we make what is going on in our world more important than what is going on in God's world for us. Whatever we put above Him is an idol no matter how good it is. I said in my last post that it says in Psalm 127:3 "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him." Yes they are a gift from Him, but that gift is NOT higher than Him. That gift is a BLESSING from Him. Whatever idol we have cannot bring us eternal life, it cannot make the impossible possible, it cannot bring us from failure to success. Only our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can do that. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords can do so much more when we give our desires to Him, when we give our idols to Him.
Psalm 37:4 "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
This verse has so much packed into it, but what we need to do is give the Lord our desires and align our will and desires with His will and desires for our life. Once we do that our worldly idols will fall and He will be higher than anything in our lives. Is that easy? No way. Will it happen over night? We can only wish. That is what is amazing about our God, he wants to take our desires, our idols, our yearnings, our dreams, and turn them into something bigger and better than what we could ever imagine for ourselves, something bigger than our definition of big. His definition is so much greater than ours.
My question for you, what are your idols? What do you think is too big for God to handle? What are you afraid to give to Him? Take that uncertainty, fear, and your idols and lay them at the feet of the cross, lay them at the feet of our Savior, that wants to take them and turn them into something beyond what we could ever think of for ourselves. Praying for you my sweet friends.
For Him and For His Glory!
As a Christian I have taken to heart that God will forever will reign supreme in my life. I hold no one above Him, including my husband and my family, at least that is what I like to say. We are a fallen people, a fallen society, and we are no match for the glory of God. It says in Romans 3:23-24 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Even though we are no match for the grace, forgiveness, and compassion that is of God, we can hold true to the fact it is through Him that we can experience grace and redemption because of what Christ did for us on the cross.
So, what does all of this have to do with idols? Well, we all have something that we hold higher than God at times and hence we fall short of the glory of God. I do not know very many people that will jump up, shout from the roof tops, and say, " I MAKE ______________ AN IDOL!!" We have idols all around us, I mean take for instance, "American Idol". We vote for the person we idolize the most on a singing competition. We all have an idol and mine was brought to my attention by a friend earlier this week after he read my last post about my yearning and longing for motherhood. This Aggie said to me, "Nothing wrong with that yearning/dream at all! Just don't let it become an idol. Surrender/give it back to Him and ask for peace until the time is right. Then watch and see what He does, regardless of the outcome." His response, especially the last part, hit me hard and pains me to my core, but it was something I needed to read. I admit with everything in me that I HAVE made wanting to be a mom an idol. I have put it over the happiness of my marriage and over God's perfect timing for my life. I am human and have earthly desires, but when those desires become bigger and higher than God... I am in need of a serious intervention from the Holy Spirit and I am thankful for those He brings along beside me to help be His voice.
It says in Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thought than your thoughts." I have to repeat that to myself daily. He has bigger plans for me than I could ever imagine, but it all has to come to fruition in His timing and not mine. It has to be His way, not mine. Technically, it's His way or the highway. His timing and His ways have more strength than we (I) could ever muster. They have more power than we (I) could ever wish to acquire. His dreams for us are powerful, yet graceful. His ways are strong, yet gentle on our hearts. We have to set our minds on what and who is above and not on what and who is on earth. To be honest, your eyes on anything or anyone else will drive you to a place without God's voice. Anything and anyone else will fail you at some point in time, BUT God will NEVER fail you nor will He forsake you. On a side note, I love the word BUT in the Bible... Let's look and take in the verses below:
Ephesians 2:3-4 "Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."
Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Matthew 19:26 "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Romans 5:8 "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Their are many many more than just the ones above, but let's look at just these few. Look at the words that come before "but": fail, wrath, impossible, die... Without God we would fail, without God we would have endured the wrath that Christ suffered for us, without God everything would be impossible, without God we would not have eternal life with our Father in heaven, that because of Christ we can know, without a doubt, that we will see Christ's face when we pass into heaven.
Look at what we are missing when we make what is going on in our world more important than what is going on in God's world for us. Whatever we put above Him is an idol no matter how good it is. I said in my last post that it says in Psalm 127:3 "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him." Yes they are a gift from Him, but that gift is NOT higher than Him. That gift is a BLESSING from Him. Whatever idol we have cannot bring us eternal life, it cannot make the impossible possible, it cannot bring us from failure to success. Only our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can do that. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords can do so much more when we give our desires to Him, when we give our idols to Him.
Psalm 37:4 "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
This verse has so much packed into it, but what we need to do is give the Lord our desires and align our will and desires with His will and desires for our life. Once we do that our worldly idols will fall and He will be higher than anything in our lives. Is that easy? No way. Will it happen over night? We can only wish. That is what is amazing about our God, he wants to take our desires, our idols, our yearnings, our dreams, and turn them into something bigger and better than what we could ever imagine for ourselves, something bigger than our definition of big. His definition is so much greater than ours.
My question for you, what are your idols? What do you think is too big for God to handle? What are you afraid to give to Him? Take that uncertainty, fear, and your idols and lay them at the feet of the cross, lay them at the feet of our Savior, that wants to take them and turn them into something beyond what we could ever think of for ourselves. Praying for you my sweet friends.
For Him and For His Glory!
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