Idols:
What is an idol? I used to think that an idol was anything that we worshiped that is not the God all mighty, And it is true, but beyond this simplistic definition, I thought it was any image, saint or supernatural power out side of God that I place my faith in.
An idol could be something good, something that in it's essence is not bad such a person, a hobby, work, a pattern of behavior such as eating or drinking, knowledge, and almost anything that God has created for us to enjoy.
I have been exploring this issue of idols in my own life and I have come to realize that I have a person, behaviors and in particular my hopes and desires for the future. Let me brake it down: first a hope for the future. Since I can remember I have always wanted to meet the perfect gal that will love me and I will love and will be the mother of my kids. In my search for this perfect person I have fallen into patterns of behavior that are not healthy for me such as dating a bunch of girls and giving them hope or them giving me hope for something that was not leading anywhere and ended up breaking our hearts. And finally a person, one of these girls turn into my idol, blurring my walk with God, not her but the fact that she had taken the place of God in my life.
My own personal hell
In order to understand the root of our idolatry we need to understand what creates the need for us to worship that idol. I understood many years ago that the purpose of my life is to worship God, that I was created to have communion and a relationship with him, but sin is in our way, and all the lost souls and many Christians (including myself) try to find that purpose by worshiping creation and not the Creator, trying to find the joy that ultimately comes from God in all created things.
For me, hell is loneliness, to picture myself in the future with no spouse and family breaks my heart. To be lonely is my own personal hell, it is not the real hell, but it is definitely the one place I would like to be delivered from and in order to be delivered from it I need a savior. But guess what, Jesus is not the savior that I found, instead I found a created savior that I thought would deliver me from that little hell and this is ended up very badly for me.
Our personal saviors
So who is this personal savior? For me it was a girl, a functional savior. Since I can remember I have been making mental and written list of the person that I want God to give me as a spouse. I found a girl that was not exactly what I looked for but she had a side of her personality that I thought was good enough for me and she lead me to think that I could spend the rest of my life her. Obviously she was in my mind my functional savior, the one that would deliver me of all my loneliness and to walk together with me for the rest of my days. She was a functional FALSE savior. The result is that we start to make sacrifices to these idols: we spend time, money and other important things at the expense of things that are truly important such as our physical of psychological health, other people and so on.
For you this functional savior could be a thing or a person. Think about the many times you have said to yourself
"if I only have this, or get to do that, I would be happy"
If I had a girl like her I would stop suffering, if I could only get that job I would be set!, if I could get to travel the world or have a house by the beach... it will deliver me form my hell and I would be happy for ever.
But the truth is that we loose our interest in it once we have it and we run after the next functional savior: we need something better. Now that I have found the savior of my hell, and I understand that I am still lonely, that it does not satisfy me, that it will not fulfill me I have to run after another and "better" functional savior.
Let me stop here for a second that reiterate what I said at the beginning, many idols are not bad, they turn bad in our life when they take the place of savior, of god in our heart and it can only be fulfill by Jesus.
Breaking down the idols
By getting rid of the idol, braking up with girl/boy friend will not change anything, selling car, or just trying to hide it from your life will not break the idol, another functional savior will come by and fill the place left by the old one. We have to find the root of the idolatry, that self created hell and understand it and let God take control of it.
For many of us will take a season of repentance and healing, self exploring and hundreds of hours in the presence of God. Jesus is the only one that can fill the void of the heart and he is the only that can restore us, when our worship is only for him, all of our relations, all of our behaviors and all the things we do and have are for the Glory of HIM, when Jesus is the center of our life everything else revolves around it and is sanctified and good; I will be able to have a girlfriend that I will respect, get to know and slowly give my Love and my heart as I try to win her heat, respect and love. I will make her my bride and our relationship will be blessed by God her parents and mine, And the result of all these, I am very sure, will be a big smile in God's beautiful face and a family created for his glory and not mine.
Reflection on salvation
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Listen to the folowing sermon for more information
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