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MEDITATION:

Written by Heidi Vegh, a contemporary writer, speaker, and ministry leader.

I often find myself in places of discontentment, heavily bombarded with opportunities to compare myself to others and allow the monster of idolatry to sit on the throne of my life. I wish I could be like her, look like her, have a business like her, or even have children like hers. I measure my accomplishments up against unrealistic expectations that the world has placed on me and place the importance of them before God, essentially worshiping the hustle to get where I want to be and much more. This, my friends, is a sin. The sin of idolatry is nothing new. In Ecclesiastes, we read, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” We fight the sin of idolatry just as the people did in ancient Israel. It may look a bit different or be packaged differently, but the sin of idolatry is alive and well. When the Israelites became discouraged as they wandered in the desert, they allowed themselves to be distracted by their world and forgot about God and how he had freed them from slavery. They erected a lifeless, golden calf made from the riches they had taken with them from Egypt. They worshipped the golden idol and made sacrifices to it. This was empty and worthless. However, they believed that this idol would help them or save them. They were aiming their worship at the wrong thing, taking matters into their own hands. This may sound ridiculous to some; however, we do the same thing. In our current world, it is so easy to set things before God and forget His faithfulness in our lives. We become overwhelmed by our own needs, desires, and abilities that we are tricked into believing that we are completely self-sufficient. Even the most devout Jesus followers tend to fall into this trap of idolatry.  We have a jealous God, meaning that He is vigilant and fiercely protective of us. He wants our affections to be aimed at Him and not the world. Not just for His sake but also ours. He knows that the idols of this world will never satisfy. Only God can truly satisfy.  God will not tolerate idolatry and longs to set us free from this sin. When he created mankind, he created us with a heart that desired worship, and it was intended that we worship Him and Him alone. He wanted to be close to His people and have deep loving relationships with Him. When we are focusing on things other than God to fulfill us, we are tempted to believe that we need something more and that God is not enough. Humans longed to be affirmed, and it is so easy to look to other humans to obtain this and not to God. But this is empty and worthless. Humans are flawed, and God is perfect. God’s approval is rooted in who Jesus is and what He did, not by what we accomplish or how we perform.  We tend to idolize our jobs, our families, our marriages, our social media presence, or our wealth. We think that if we have the next best thing, the approval, or the riches, then finally, we will be happy. We strive to make our own happiness and to take control when we should be surrendering.  But even after all this, God is still the same. He is still the same loving and jealous God that He was in the days of Exodus. He longs for us to reach for Him, worship Him, and love only Him. Remember, only God can truly satisfy. We could search to the ends of the earth to find something to fulfill us like God and we will always come up short.

PRAYER:

Today’s prayer is adapted from 2 Kings 17:7-23 and was written by Dustin Ray, a contemporary pastor.

O God, You have loved us so well. You have been kind to us. You have given us all that we need. You have kept us from danger. You have given us new life and forgiveness in Your Son, Jesus, but we have sinned against you, doing what You told us not to do. We think and live like You don’t love us, like You don’t see our struggles, like You don’t see our needs. We think that other gods of money, more stuff, looking good, seeming smart, and feeling accepted will make us whole and happy. But really, only you can make us whole and joyful. Help us trust You when You say, “I will be with you.”