As I sit down to write this devotional, I’m so grateful to the Lord for two things. First, that He loves me enough to discipline me when I am not up to snuff. I feel loved when His Holy Spirit gently reveals something in my heart that falls short of His holiness. Why? Because I really do want to be like Him. And without His help in showing me the blind spots I can’t see (or won’t see because of the current rebellion working in me), I would never reach my goal to become conformed to the image of Christ. Discipline, even more than blessings that come my way, show me how much I am loved by my Father. “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).

The second thing I am very grateful for is that He doesn’t see me as “too old to learn new tricks.” I have been on my Christian journey for almost fifty years now, and someone other than God might think “She’s learned about all that she’s going to learn about this. I think I’ll leave it at that and ease up on her… After all, if she hasn’t learned it yet, she likely isn’t able to get it!” Praise God, my Father still sees me as able to grow and mature and change, with His help, in areas I’ve struggled with for years. I feel loved and valued that He is still working with me, believing that I can do better as I learn to rely on His power rather than my own.

When we recently started studying idol worship at our neighborhood Bible study, I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting the study to impact me very much. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great book we’re using. Entitled No Other Gods by Kelly Minter, it’s spiritually insightful and very well-written. It also has great weekly homework to do and even incorporates recipes to use if the study includes sharing a meal.

But I honestly thought that I had dealt with nearly every kind of heart-rival that could compete  with my affection for God. So I settled back to mostly enjoy the fellowship of my friends and neighbors, figuring I would pick up something useful from the study to share with others. I did pray, though, asking God to show me if there were any hidden idols set up in my heart that I was unaware of, and apparently He was just waiting for me to ask.

I coasted for the first three weeks, enjoying the study and the applications made by our teacher. Then in week four I was spiritually blindsided. As I was reading through the homework for that week – readings from James 4:1-5 and Genesis 29 (the story of Rachel and Leah)­ – the Holy Spirit began to speak to me through them. He zeroed in on something that I thought I had dealt with years earlier. But there it was – obvious and glaring now that He had drawn my attention to it. I began to see how this “idol” was functioning in my life to rob me of the rich relationship with God that He and I both wanted. There was no point in trying to deny it. I could see how it had affected my attitudes and actions at times, making me fearful, petty, and far from generous in my interactions with others. I was devastated by this discovery. Yet, I was also delighted to finally get it out into the light where it could be dealt with. I knew what the Holy Spirit had highlighted could be overcome if I truly surrendered it to Him.

In Jeremiah 17 the prophet delivers this message to God’s people: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends upon flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will dwell in the parched places of the desert. … But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream … and never fails to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct” (vv. 5-10).

Boy, did He search my heart that day! As I saw how much I was relying on my people idols and not on the power of my God, I began to understand why I had been feeling dull, joyless, and defeated as I tried to live for Christ. His penetrating question to me was simple but profound: “Am I not enough?” I immediately understood what He meant by this question. In it He was asking: Don’t you believe that I can supply the love and acceptance you’ve been seeking? Why do you look to those who are no stronger than you are? They will fail you when you need them most! Let me give you all the good things I have longed to give you, and be content with my provisions. Stop striving for things that won’t satisfy you in the end and let me prove how sufficient I AM.”

This was the problem plaguing Israel. Though they were delivered out of the bondage of Egypt by the mighty hand of God, they were constantly looking for something other than what they were receiving from Him. They longed for the food in Egypt and despised the manna He graciously supplied for them. They figured He had lured them out into the desert to abandon them,
starve them, or let them die of thirst. They did not trust Him. They were unthankful. And they grumbled and complained constantly. No wonder their relationship with Him went from bad to worse.

God wanted things to go well for the Israelites, but with their hearts set on idols, paltry substitutes for all He was, they were unable to appreciate their unique and privileged position as the people of Jehovah God. When they willingly worshipped the golden calf  that Aaron fashioned for them, they proved where their trust was placed: in the earthly and tangible comforts they could see and touch, just like all the pagan nations around them.

For us today, our idols are not made of wood, gold, or stone. Many times we don’t know what we are serving in the recesses of our hearts. But our loving Father knows, and His desire is that we may be set free so we can find our rest in Him. My idol, like all idols, was worthless. Yet I foolishly served it for a very long time in the secret hope that it would give me happiness and security. I am so grateful that God lovingly pointed out that those things are only found in Him.

Once I had repented of my idolatry, He set me free from its tyranny, bondage, and false hopes. The effects were immediate – I felt ten pounds lighter and was filled with a new joy, peace, and contentment. I believed, for the first time in a long time, that He was enough!

I ran across a wonderful passage in my daily Bible reading last week that spoke to me in a special way following my deliverance from this idol. I saw that there are hidden treasures to be discovered by those who serve Him with a pure and unrivaled heart. “You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god. For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things. … Oh, that my people would listen to me! How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! … I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock” (Psalm 81:9-10, 13-14, 16).

Idols keep us from experiencing the joys we could know if we would only trust in our loving God. How He wants to bless us – not necessarily with material wealth or earthly pleasures, but with wild honey from the rock – the treasures of His kingdom that are so great that they defy definition and cannot be numbered. Our hearts are made for Him, not for any other. That’s why we can never find true satisfaction until we are wholly and completely His.

Sometimes we think that we only have to battle the issue of our heart’s loyalty once. When we come to Christ Jesus and invite Him to be our Savior and Lord, we may feel this issue will never come up again. But learning to abide in Him and to let Him be first in our hearts is something we must contend for on a daily basis. When we become complacent, as I did, we can fall victim to an undetected intruder who will set up a rival kingdom in opposition to the rule of Christ. These idols will then rob us of the abundant life God has planned for us.

In his essay “Keep Yourselves in the Love of God” Oswald Chambers explores how we can guard ourselves against idol worship, (attaching ourselves to anything that will diminish our relationship with God our Savior). He writes, “We have turned our back on the ocean and are looking out over barren colourless hills for the ocean’s fullness. We need converting again – turning round, and there basks the ocean’s fullness, whose waves sparkle and ripple on fathomless deeps and fulnesses.” But once we turn, we must keep ourselves there by building ourselves up on our most holy faith, as it says in Jude 20. Chambers continues: “Drink deep and full of the love of God and you will not demand the impossible from earth’s loves, and the love of wife and child, of husband and friend, will grow holier and healthier and simpler and grander.”

Keeping ourselves in something means work, and this work never ends until we move from this life to the next. We must make the choices that will keep us close to God and learn to be thankful for all that He gives. Contentment comes when we learn through experience that the great I AM is truly sufficient for all we need and desire in this life. The world’s promises for security and happiness cannot deliver. They may give us fleeting pleasure for a short time, but they will leave us empty and unfulfilled in the end.

It’s never too late to take a spiritual inventory and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal and cast out all idols that have taken up residence in our hearts. Once we are free from them, we’ll be able to fully enjoy all the pleasures and rewards of a godly life. For me, I’m excited to discover new treasures from God’s hand and to experience the depths of His ocean love. As I abide in Him and call upon Him out of a pure and undivided heart, I may even discover what wild honey from the rock is like!

For my closing song I have picked one written by Kelly Minter, the author of our study on idols (yes, she’s a songwriter too). I hope her lyrics express the deepest desire of your heart. I know they do mine.

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“First in My Heart”

So this is love, it feels like war to slay my gods by the sword, making room for you to dwell here inside of me unrivaled. Though it
costs me everything, only You will be …

First in my heart, first in my mind, and in everything I long for in this life; first in my
dreams, first in my eyes, before every other love that I desire.

Take these idols a million miles from the allegiance of my soul; fill this hunger with your wonder till only You will, only, only, only,
You will be …

First in my heart, first in my mind, and in everything I long for in this life; first in my
dreams, first in my eyes, before every other love that I desire.