Idols

Well, it's been a while since my last post but I'm hoping to be better about keeping up with my blog now that school is out. We shall see...

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about idols since Sunday night when we were talking about this in my small group. I was immediately convicted by an illustration that I saw because it was picture of what I often do in my own life (I wish I had the ability to draw it on here to show you, but that's not possible). Sometimes it is just so easy for me to put other things in front of God in my life. They are not necessarily bad things, but it's the fact that they are more important to me in the moment that concerns me.....

As I was thinking about this issue, and many other conversations that I have recently had with people, I realized just how much of a struggle idolatry is for so many people who truly want to follow Jesus. The world has created these man-made standards that many of us feel like we have to measure up to, whether it be with our jobs, parenting, marriage, body image, possessions, sex, addictions, social status, hobbies, etc. The sad thing is we want to meet these standards or feel a certain way about ourselves so bad that we allow ourselves to lust after these "things" that have no eternal value whatsoever! We will do just about anything, including sin, to fulfill our desires. In turn, we create alters in our hearts and we worship these certain areas/things in our lives, we do everything in our power to find fulfillment. In the process we neglect the things in life that are most important. It's sickening! This is nothing new, it's a topic discussed in churches quite frequently.

I think about all of these things we chase after, then I think about God. My Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Redeemer... and the fact that He loves me and He thinks I'm perfect, in fact He made me this way. He desires more than anything else for me to love Him and follow Him with ALL of my heart. He promises to meet my needs in EVERY situation. He promises that I can find true fulfillment ONLY through Him. If this is true, why do we spend so much time trying to fulfill other temporary desires???? ---Deception!

It bothers me because I REALLY want to be fully reliant on and fulfilled by Him. I don't want to just say it, but I want it to be. I think of how sad it must be for Him to watch his followers bounce around from one thing to another trying to find joy, peace, and acceptance when all we really have to do is look to Him. He is the only thing that we have in this life that is of any eternal value, why not invest in Him instead of our own selfish desires? When we leave this world, we are not taking any of our "stuff"(jobs, houses, cars, bodies, friends, family) with us.

So I ask myself, Is God enough for me? I have a friend who has posed this question before and it really made me think.... If you lost everything you had, your home, family, job, possessions, every sense of worldly security, would God be enough for you? Would you be fine with JUST Him? Do you know Him well enough to feel confident? The first time I thought about this, I honestly had to question myself. Then when I have times like this where I really ask God to search my heart and reveal to me any unknown sin or anything that I am putting before Him, and He does... it really puts things into perspective and makes me see how much I do not rely on Him in ALL areas of my life. It also makes me see how much I want to truly, truly, truly say, "You're enough for me, God."