intimacy with god
Is Jesus Your First Love ? (Idols In Your…
Is Jesus Your First Love ?
Idols In Today’s World
Most people that are Christians today would say that without a doubt they do not have any idols in their life. After all, an idol is something like a religious item or a statue. Like the golden calf that the Israelites made while Moses was on Mount Sinai getting the 10 commandments from God. Or like a statue of Buddha.
We need God to examine our hearts before we quickly state that we have no idols in our life and that Jesus is absolutely our first love. Perhaps idols in today’s modern world are something altogether different than we think.
Before we see what idols actually are in today’s world. let’s take a look at how God views idols.
God’s View Of Idols:
- Deuteronomy 5:7 (God zealously loves us with all His being & wants us to love Him this same way)
- “I will pronounce my judgements on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshipping what their hands have made. … I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert… Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged my Glory for worthless idols. … My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. … Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way ? … Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me. … They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble they say, ‘Come and save us !’ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves ? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble ! … But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers – would you now return to me ? … their immorality mattered so little to them, they defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood (idols). … Only acknowledge your guilt- you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree and have not obeyed me; Return, faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am your husband. … How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call me Father, and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me.” (excerpts from Jeremiah 1:16 to 3:20)
- God views our idols as acts of adultery in our relationship with Him
- “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.” – I John 2:15-16
An idol is anything that takes the place of Jesus as the first love, and treasure, and passion of our life. It is natural for human beings to have idols, which can be almost anything tangible in our lives. It is easier to pursue and put something in 1st place in our lives if it is a visible and tangible thing or goal, dream, or desire.
Here are some examples of idols in the modern world.
Examples Of Idols in today’s modern world:
- Money
- Religion
- Tradition
- Pleasure
- Career
- Success
- Accomplishment
- Material Things
- Status
- Power
- Influence
- Position
- Our own goals (in place of God’s goals)
- Our own purposes (in place of God’s purposes)
- Control
- Our own ideas
- Our own opinions
- Self – living to please self instead of pleasing God – 2 Cor. 5:9,14
It’s not wrong to have these things. It becomes wrong when we begin to love these things and turn to them to satisfy and fulfill ourselves before we turn to God, or when we love these things more than we love Jesus.
Before you decide that you do not have any idols in your life that are taking Jesus’ place as your first love and your treasure and your passion, please read the next post (Feb. 8)
Pursuing Intimacy With God is committed to helping you with the most important thing in your life… your intimacy with God , your fellowship with Him, and your partnership with God in His Kingdom work & mission.
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