Check the idols of your heart.
A Korean businessman killed himself losing the bulk of his $370 million investment in the stock market.
His wife told the press that he just stopped eating, went on a drinking binge for days, and finally decided to kill himself.
Something took control of this Korean businessman’s mental state. A “false lover,” an idol, which disenchanted and destroyed him.
This past almost 2 years of the Coronavirus pandemic, many of those idols people worship for many years have come crashing down around us.
Come to think of it, what we therapists call “psychological problems” or mental/emotional disorders are actually simple issues of idolatry.
The human heart is an “idol factory.”
Idols are “false lovers” that promise to make us feel loved and valued.
You have “idols in your heart” when you make lesser gods or goods most essential, ultimate, or supreme in your life than the true God.
Idols control us, since we feel we must have them or life is meaningless and not worth living for.
You can make a god out of money. You can make a god out of personal success or career. You can make a god out of knowledge . You can make a god out of social media.
You can make a god out of health, fitness, or beauty. You can make a god out of a politician or celebrity. You can make a god out of love and sex, even family and relationships.
If anyone or anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol or lesser god.
We all live in a world filled with so many choices of idols. Counterfeit gods. “False lovers.” “God-alternatives.”
They number more than realities and truths around us. Idols are everywhere.
We all need wisdom to sort through the maze. In our hearts.
Dr. Timothy Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods” is one of the books I’ve read lately. It can help us deepen our understanding of this strange psychological and spiritual malady.
Dr. Keller writes,
“The biblical concept of idolatry is an extremely sophisticated idea, integrating intellectual, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual categories. There are personal idols, such as romantic love and family; or money, power, and achievement; or access to particular social circles; or the emotional dependence of others on you; or health, fitness, and physical beauty. Many look to these things for the hope, meaning, and fulfillment that only God can provide … The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one.”
I’d like to recommend and share his book to you through this post.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them… .” (Exodus 20:4-5)
Take notice. Check the idols of your heart, if any.
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