Every time I think I've advanced in my walk with Christ I realize I have SO far to go. I'm at a point where I'm really examining myself to get my heart and my mind in the right place. So as of late I've been doing a bit of soul searching and questioning my life. In church we've been speaking about idolatry and I've come to find that I had a lot of things that I need to work on
As we began to look at idolatry we looked at things like success, our desire to please others, relationships, approval, our appearance, money etc. Essentially idolatry is when we look to things to give us what only God can give us. We always have that desire for more. I'm guilty of this. The whole attitude of "when I get this job/promotion/ when I get into school /if this person would just notice me/ when I get married / when I get this money then things will be okay for me...I'll be genuinely happy, my happiness and self worth will be fulfilled. We get these things only to want for the next thing in line hoping that with these accomplishments comes the promise of love the promise of fulfillment the promise of acceptance...whatever you've promised yourself.
The truth is that the more that we look to these things the emptier the promises become. We get that job or that promotion or that guy/girl or we lose the weight and then we just want more because when we obtain it we didn't get the fulfillment that we thought would come with it...it soon after fades. A good measure of determining what your idols are is to examine your thoughts. What do you spend most of your time thinking about? What do you put all of your energy towards? Is God REALLY first in our lives or are we just lying to ourselves knowing He comes in a close 2nd or 3rd? As much as I LOVE God the truth is that I'm not putting him first (I would put this in past tense but I'm just being honest with myself...still working on this...in the process of learning about myself).
My idolatry came in the form of success and vanity/my appearance. No I'm not addicted to retail or anything but the truth is that I very much so value it...my funds go towards it, my thoughts, my time etc. It's easier/more comfortable for me...I'm more willing I should say to dedicate these things to my appearance than I am to dedicate the same things to God. I put more time, energy, thought, and prayer into success and my appearance. When that continued to give me empty promises I shifted my focus on strengthening my walk with Christ by being celibate, opting to not drink liquor and curse etc. In doing so I became so focused on "following the rules" that I forgot about Him (if this is you read Galations 3, Paul tells us how the law won't save you but Christ will). None of these things fulfilled me like only God can.
Solomon talks about this in Ecclesiastes 1-2. Solomon had become so RICH and denied himself NOTHING. Anything you could think of he bought and anything there was to accomplish he accomplished it...yet there was nothing gained under the sun. He found that wisdom, pleasure, folly, EVERYTHING was meaningless. 24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Essentially what Solomon found was that only God could give him the promise of happiness, fulfillment, love, grace. He could not find it in success, in working, in pleasuring himself, in drinking, in wisdom, in anything....but God.
So yea I guess my challenge to you is that you take time to really examine yourself and find out what your idols are. Perhaps you're so focused on finding a husband, getting a job, how you look....whatever it may be. I can only tell you from my own experiences but if you don't take my word for it listen to Solomon or anyone else in the Bible for that matter...don't continue on with the empty promises. Put God first in your life and allow Him to fulfill you. And I'll close with this:
Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs Jonah 2:8
