Drum roll please…
Just feeling like celebrating today because I actually completed something I started.
On April 25th of this year, I cracked open the first crisp pages of Kelly Minter’s study: No Other Gods confronting our modern day idols
I can’t recommend it enough…even if it was painfully eye-opening.
The whole study walked me through the process of identifying the idols that have been foolishly nudged God out of first place in the heart of this lady, right here.
She kicks it off on Day 1 of the study with this definition:
An idol is something other than God that we:
- Set our hearts on
- Motivates us
- Masters and rules us
- that we trust, fear or serve
It can be good things, that have become the main thing.
Careers
Relationships
Family
Security
Reputation
Talents
Approval
All of these things are God-given things…
but when they begin to eclipse God in our hearts…
they have become idols.
Ouch
These idols maintain their position in my heart behind strongholds…
places of strength that are held in place by deception, lies, fear, intimidation…
all for the purpose of taking up space in my heart that, in truth, belongs only to God.
It is so interesting to me that while I was working on this study, I also participated in a book launch for Make Room for What you Love by Melissa Michels.
While one book was a Bible Study and one book was about decluttering your home…these two books are written by Christian women and both speak TRUTH.
We don’t empty our closets or our hearts to fill them with more junk.
We are emptying ourselves of false gods to make room for THE God.
Jehovah
I AM
Yahweh
Adonai
El Elyon
El Shaddai
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
on and on and on…
to eternity…
“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Ezekiel 14:3English Standard Version (ESV)
and….
praise be to this amazing GOD we serve…
He helps us in this process…
And I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender responsive heart. Ezekiel 36:26 NLT
I have a lot of work tearing down some places that have been revealed through this study.
It isn’t easy…
some run deep and have hidden themselves as “virtues”…
when in reality they are as ugly as sin…
because..
that is exactly what an idol is.