IDOLATRY

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Today’s Reading:

Isaiah 44:17-28

“And with the rest of it, he makes a god, even his graven image. He falls down to it and worships it and he prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my god.” (Isaiah 44:17)

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A good reader of the Bible especially the Old Testament will agree with me that the commonest sin among the Israelites was the sin of idolatry. At some point, they turned to God and served him wholeheartedly and at other times they slipped back into idolatry. Even King Solomon, in all his wisdom and wealth, couldn’t resist worshipping the pagan gods of his many lovers, which actually led to idolatry throughout the entire nation and culminated in his eventual destruction.

For a sin that God frowns at, it seems quite irrelevant to us today. Idolatry, though has to do with bowing down to wooden images and serving such a god, however, in modern times, idolatry is anything our heart cleaves to, which we give so much attention to. Anything that takes the place of God in our heart: be it spouse, children, career, material things etc. is a form of idolatry. Jesus said in Luke 14:26; if any man comes to me and hates not his father and mother and his wife and children and brethren and sister, ye and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. God doesn’t want anything to compete with him in our lives, we must give him our all, and nothing should we withhold from him.

From the passage above, God’s people must remember that they are the products of God, not the products of their own invention. Idolatry is humanism in that man seeks to be the centre of his own power. He seeks to focus on no other existence outside himself. In his book, Counterfeit gods, Tim Keller provides a series of questions that can help to identify the idols in our lives. Here are a few:

• What am I living for?

• What are my hopes and dreams?

• What do I wake up and go to sleep thinking about?

• Where does my mind naturally go?

• What do you daydream about?

• Whose opinion matters most?

• If I’m unsure about what to do in any given situation, whose opinion comes to mind?

• What gives your life meaning?

• How do you define yourself?

• What do I do to escape?

• When life gets tough, what do I find my comfort, safety, rescue and pleasure in? It could be work, video games, silent treatment, hiding in a book, fantasizing, etc.

• What do I talk about the most?

• What do I spend my money on?

• What am I most afraid of losing?

• What do I worry about most? All these and many more will help us discover the idol in our lives.

JAMES ALADE

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Prayer:

1. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications.

2. He hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

3. Confess any known idol in your life based on cross-examination of the above questions

4. I receive my deliverance today from any idol in Jesus' name

5. Arise, Oh Lord and break the power of idolatry in my life in Jesus' name.

6. Lord unite Your Church and empower her to preach the Gospel of truth in love, in Jesus' name.

7. Thank you for moving our nation forward, in Jesus' name. Amen