What is idolatry?
Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones answers…”Well, an idol can be defined most simply in this way: an idol is anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone…Anything that holds a controlling position in my life is an idol…”
We often think of idolatry as bowing down to statues and worshipping false gods. Whilst that certainly can be idol worship, there are a great many other things that fall into this category. Food, sex, money, entertainment, drugs, drink, success, comfort etc. Do we allow these things to control our lives?
Let’s take it a step further and ask about illness and/or suffering. If we have a debilitating illness, could this become our main focus? I’m certainly not minimising anyone’s illness or the difficulty of chronic pain but could it become all consuming? What about suffering and loss of a loved one. Is it possible to dwell so deeply that we cannot or do not focus on anything else?
In our situation with our son and his brain injury, is our focus on what he has lost in this tragedy? or what we once had? Is it on our daily struggle to look after him? For me personally, do dwell on the extreme mental anguish of what happened on that awful day of his accident? Again who could blame us if these things were our absolute focus and the controlling position in our lives.
Recently during a morning service in church I felt the Lord give me a gentle nudge. Am I really allowing this whole situation to control my life? The simple and honest answer is yes I am. Who can blame me, who can blame us for allowing these things to dominate our everyday thoughts and lives.
But are we making an idol out of our circumstances? If our suffering is all encompassing and all we focus on, causing us to take our eyes off Jesus then it could become an idol. We all have distractions in our lives, we all sin and therefore these things get in the way of our relationship with the Lord which then has the danger of robbing us of our joy, peace, hope etc. This is the reason why God doesn’t want idolatry of any kind to be in our lives, simply because it robs us of all that He has for us. He wants us to put Him first in spite of all the difficulties we face.
We have to live day to day living with the consequences of what has happened to Nathanael but we must keep the Lord in view.
Our website is strength in suffering not because we want to make an idol of suffering but because we want to show how God’s strength enables us to carry on every day. God does understand our pain and struggle and like the compassionate father in Luke 15 is always waiting for us to reach out to Him once again.
Whatever difficulties, challenges and sufferings you face, be mindful to not let these things take your entire focus or control your life. God wants you to put Him first so He can break through in your life. Idolatry can mask in different forms and these things can pull us down and rob us, but know that God wants to help us in our situations because He desires good even in very dire circumstances. He wants to occupy our lives and have the controlling position in our lives.
Prayer - Dear Lord, Thank You that You ask or even command us to keep ourselves from idols, even those things that we live with everyday. You know that we often find it difficult to find a way through, but with Your help it is possible. We want you to be the focus, we need You to be Lord and not our circumstances. Help us to that end. Amen
That is a very powerful corrective to the way in which we can so easily tespond to long term illness. I sm also thinking of friends with dementia whose partners can find it difficult not to be all consumed by their spouse's needs, and thoseof us on the outside wonder how we might best offer help and support, but their world seemsto become 'enclosed' and not easily able to risk reaching outside to others.
An honest share of impingement of
God first,
It happens to most of us Jesus follower's don't you think 🤔.?
If we confess our sin, He is faithful, and just to forgive us from ALL unrighteousness. Amen