Breaking Free

"You shall have no other gods before Me.”—Exodus 20:3

The Bible is absolutely clear—God is God and there is no other. He alone deserves our unqualified, absolute and complete obedience. Which is why the Bible describes Him as a “consuming fire” and a “jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). He is jealous for our affections—not that jealousy is bad. Only in God is it good and pure. As James wrote,

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us’?”—James 4:4-5.

God is jealous for our hearts. We were made for a relationship with Him and whenever we put something on the throne of our hearts before Him, He burns with a holy jealousy. God wants what is best for us—which is Himself. Whenever we put something or someone else on the throne of our hearts we become guilty of idolatry. But what is an idol? And how do we know what is an idol in our lives? Idolatry is much more than little figurines or statues that people in third world cultures bow down to. No, an idol is anything that comes between you and God. And an idol can be anything—love, pleasure, possessions, sex, drugs, alcohol, a boyfriend or girlfriend, children, school, a job, a career, success, money, status, prestige, power, beauty, strength, intelligent, talent, you name it. Anything that becomes the focus of your heart over God is an idol. John Calvin captured the essence of our battle with idolatry best when he said, “Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” He’s right. We can create an idol out of anything, which is why that the very last thought that John the apostle communicated in his first epistle is, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”—1 John 5:21. Idolatry is something that every one of us struggles with and we must learn to identify the idols of our heart and then break free from them.

God wants your heart. What do you think the idols of your heart are? What will you do anything to have? What is the one thing that consumes most of your thoughts? What is it that controls your joy? When you are able to identify the idol, the next thing that must be done is to break free and that can only be done through the cross of Christ.

May God bring the idols of your heart to surface so that they might be shattered and destroyed. God wants you for Himself, He will accept nothing less. Amen.