The term idol might conjure up images of small figures or ornate statues in your mind. But idols do not exist only in physical form. An idol is anything you draw your strength from or give your strength to. It is how you spend yourself—your time, your efforts, your thoughts. It is the driving force behind your actions. Of such things, Scripture says:
The fashioners of an image—all of them are emptiness, and the things they delight in cannot profit. Isaiah 44:9 RHM
In biblical times people would form idols and images, then bow down to what they themselves had crafted. Those with eyes asked guidance of blind idols. Those with breath, mouth, and voice cried out to mute figures with lifeless lips. Those with ears to hear cried out to deaf ears of stone. It sounds like a mistake too obvious to make, but how easily we can do the same!
When we don’t take our problems to God, we end up crying out to the very problems that have us ensnared. When we worship the work of our hands or the works of the flesh, we worship images of the creation and not the Creator. We become like those Paul speaks of:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:21 NIV
The people spoken of in Romans 1 knew there was a Creator God, but they did not want to glorify Him or acknowledge His provision by thanking Him. Soon their hearts became like the idols they worshiped: void of light and futile.
We all serve something or someone. The question is not if you serve but whom you serve. The image you behold is the image you become—not outwardly but inwardly.
I want you to be strengthened as you seek and serve the one true God. I encourage you to spend time in prayer today. Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal anything that has caused you to rely on a lesser god. Turn away from that image, glorify your Heavenly Father, and give thanks for who He is and what He does. When you keep your heart close to Him, you will remain in the light of truth!
