As a Christian idolatry is simply when you love anything better than God. The great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, summed up idolatry as follows: “If you love anything better than God you are idolaters: if there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol: if there is anything that you seek with greater fervour than you seek the glory of God, that is your idol, and conversion means a turning from every idol.”1
In America today we are faced with so many things that vie for our attention and devotion that if we are not careful these things can become idols in our lives. For example, many Christians spend so much time watching sports that this activity takes precious time away from reading our Bibles and spending quality time with the Lord. If this is your situation then sports has become your idol. Or it could be money, fame, shopping, cars, a person, Facebook or any number of things that get between us and God. Simply put when we treasure these things more than God we make them an idol.
I think if we are honest all of us as Christians have had idols at one time or another in our lives. Take money. Yes, we need money to survive but so many times we get consumed with making more money that we forget to give a portion back to God, we get consumed with buying things that give us pleasure and comfort, and we view our worth based on how much money we have in our bank accounts rather than who we are in Christ.
In fact, Jesus spoke more about money than nearly anything else because He knew how much we value and even worship it. As Christians we need to balance our need for money with our greater need to worship God and put Jesus first in everything we do. Jesus promises to provide for our needs if we only put Him first. For we read in (Matthew 6:33): “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” When we put Jesus first He will provide for all of our needs – not all of our greed.
As Christians we need to be on constant alert that no idols spring up in our lives because idols not only displease God but they rob us of our joy and intimacy with Jesus. If you want to experience true and lasting joy in life then you need to realize that idols will rob you of true joy because you have put them in the place of Jesus. To worship anything other than Jesus is an afront to our holy God and will never bring us the satisfaction we think we can obtain from these idols.
The antidote for idol worship can be found in one of my favorite verses: “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11). If you have never experienced fullness of joy chances are that you have never really entered into the presence of the Lord. There is nothing as wonderful as being in the presence of the Lord. And the more we read and meditate on Scripture, spend quality time in prayer, and establish strong devotional habits, the more joy we will experience. And this joy will be far greater than the momentary pleasures we get from the idols we serve.
If you discover that something or someone is taking too much of your time away from Jesus, then you need to reevaluate your priorities and focus away from these idols and back to worshipping our Savior. As we spend more time in worshipping Jesus (Psalm 16:11) tells us that we will be following the best path of life, experiencing fullness of joy, and enjoying long lasting pleasures. I challenge you to draw closer to Jesus and away from your idols – you won’t regret it!
This is a hard one. Thank you for the reminder.