“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” – 1 John 5:21

We rarely know when we have made something more important than God until He has tried to get our attention so many times that he has to use a sledgehammer. At least that’s the way it always works for me. It’s usually something I think I’ve given Him; a relationship, work, a project, etc.

You see, an idol is not only anything we worship. It’s anything we put before God in order of importance. And consider this: It’s also things we refuse to trust Him with.

Think about that financial issue you just keep picking back up and dwelling on and spending all the emotional energy of worry on. What about that problem with your significant other? That ambition, that health condition: really anything you think about more than God.

It’s the lack of acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty: the issue is so big we can’t trust God to handle it for us. In that case, it’s not just the situation that is the idol, but we’ve also become our own idol because we’re stepping in front of God to try to handle something only He is equipped and big enough to deal with.

I’m so guilty of this. I pray and pray and pray about it, but I never actually leave it in His hands. Then I wonder why He takes it away.

Exodus 34:14 tells us God is a jealous God, and why shouldn’t He be? He sacrificed His one and only Son so we could live. You’d better bet that if we’re looking at anything through a bigger lens than we’re using to see God, He’s going to stop that in its tracks. And we should always ask Him to, because if He is to be the love of our lives, He needs our full devotion.

Our loyalty should be to Him first every day, not to the fleeting things of the world. ❤️

“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” – 1 John 5:4