If you're like me, you like music and TV a lot. And if you don't like music, chances are you like TV or vice versa. These two things have taken over our culture big time. It seems this is how we relate to what happens in our lives. Songs that seem to express exactly how we feel at a point in our lives or watch someone on TV who is going through exactly what we are going through and watch to see how they handle it.
Do some things seem to overtake your life sometimes? Maybe you have to look at your phone every time it beeps for a new text message or constantly need to be checking your Facebook for updates. Whatever it is, being obsessed with things more than God can become a problem. A good way to find if you have idols is to see where your time is most spent. Is a lot of your time spent in prayer with God and reading His Word or texting, chatting, watching TV, etc.?
Have you ever looked up the defintion for the word "idol"? One defintion says that an idol is "any person or thing regarded with high admiration, adoration, or devotion". Do you put your stuff as a higher priority than God? If so, do you realize that that item is your idol? Now we all know that you don't pray to it or bow down to it, but is your focus directed towards that or God?
God says in 1 John 5:21, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the meaning behind this passage. God clearly doesn't want us to have idols. Now does this mean to sell anything that you are obsessed with? Well, I'm not saying you should, but if it causes that much of a distraction from God you probably should. What is probably a good idea is to hide or stay away from (if it's too big to hide like the TV) whatever it is that is hindering your relationship with God.
Challenge!
Stay away from "your idol" for a couple weeks and use that time to strengthen your relationship with God. Spend your time every morning or every evening reading His Word or reading a good devotion. See how much easier it is to focus on that instead of having your idol constantly in your way.
Prayer
-to make God my highest priority
