Disguised Idolatry

In Ezekiel 8, it talks about the Israelites idolizing all these things and different gods. As I read it, I was appaled by the obvious idolatry the Israelites were participating in. They weren't even trying to hide it. After all the things the Lord carried them through. After all the times the Lord proved Himself faithful. Time and time again. Yet, here are the Israelites, again worshipping idols. Mourning over the death of some of their gods. Wow. And then it hit me... what a depiction of what our world looks like today. What a depiction of what I can look like at times. Our idols may not take the form of a statue or a place we go to worship these specific things. It may not be a specific god. Today, the enemy has made idolatry available right at our fingertips. At any given moment, we can fall into the web of idolatry. Idolatry is anything we put above God. It's making something else god in our lives. Some, I'd say most of us, do this unintentionally. But we need to become better at recognizing the things in our lives that we find important, admire, or enjoy. We need to be better at recognizing when something has gone from just something we enjoy to idolatry. Even good things make poor idols. How often do people idolize other people? Adopt their mannerisms, sayings, outfit choices? Become enamored with people's opinions and pleasing people? Often times, people let other people run their lives. How they dress, speak, etc. Our phones, our tvs, the internet... 24/7 access to anything. How often do we let these screens, these websites steal our time and distract us from more important things? God didn't intend for us to live in fear of people or in little communication/interaction with people. Idols haven't disappeared. They have just changed figure. We live in a world that is consumed by idolatry. Students have school. Adults have work. Kids have toys, phones, TV. There's people, the news, media. Idolatry isn't dead, it's disguised. If the enemy can make it seem innocent... like it's all just for pleasure and enjoyment. There's no harm done in it. We consume more. We have a hunger for more. Eventually, our own hunger consumes us. The enemy makes idolatry seem innocent. We try to use any other word but idolatry. Anything can become an idol. Even the good things. Our kids, our parents, our job, our school, our hobbies, our friends, our health... and on and on I can go. The enemy will actually try to start with the good things. His goal is always to steal, kill, and destroy. If he can kill and steal the beauty and innocence on the good things, surely he can justify anything as good. Let us actively tear down the statues we build. The things we place on pedestals. The things we admire and that steal our attention. Let the stone crumble, the wood rot, the pedestals fall and let our King take His throne back in our lives. The world drives idolatry. Let the Lord lead our lives. Let us have the discernment to recognize things that could become idols in our lives and reject them. The world drives idolatry, worship of creature/created. The Lord leads us back to our Creator.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

~Romans 1:25~