Have you considered that you may have spiritual idols in your life? You don't worship physical statues or images as that is clearly disobeying God's commandments. So, you are in the clear, right?
In Jeremiah chapter 10, the Lord is speaking with Jeremiah about the vain customs of the people. He warns them, specifically describing the traps and pit falls set by satan to separate them from Him. God is unique – there is no one like Him. He is the true God, living and everlasting King whose wrath is to be feared! He is the Creator by His power and the former and future God of all things. Yet, He loves us more than we can imagine - thus the warnings.
Let's begin with a Biblical definition of an idol. Idols are of the heathen (those who do not practice Christianity), fashioned from nature as the cutting of a tree out of the forest, decking it with silver and gold, and fastening it down so it cannot fall (Hebrew Bible says 'topple). They are not former nor will they exist in the Eternal's Kingdom, they are vain, dumb, and can do nothing! They are not real and not to be feared or marveled at but are the work of cunning men. They represent brutishness and foolishness, - a doctrine of vanities. This totally describes the Christmas Tree with the doctrine of Christ being born in the winter, on the same day as the Sun God!It is a doctrine of vanities because God does not share His throne with any man-made god so would not share His day of birth to become a sacrifice, sending His only begotten Son to earth to be born of a woman for the purpose of becoming the Savior of the world. The Lord is the true God, living, everlasting King, at His wrath the earth shall tremble and nations won't be able to abide His indignation – He is a jealous God.
An idol is anything we come to rely on for some blessing, or comfort, or help or guidance in the place of a wholehearted reliance on the true and living Eternal God. It can be another person, involvement in a church or a social group, the practice of traditions that God has not given yet have been adopted by a culture intent on mixing God's ways with the world's ways. It can be a drug or even food. Anything that brings us what we want and need in place of God. In Jeremiah, God goes to great lengths to convince us of the emptiness of our idolatry. He wants us to see Him in contrast to any useless imagining of our own creation. He is the real and powerful Creator of life and able to protect us from real threats to our souls.
We often come up with counterfeit characteristics of God, allowing them to creep into our thinking and become real to us. In Jeremiah 1-1-16, the Lord exposes any false ideas imagined about Him and how He is often perceived by an honest, detailed sharing of the Truth with us regarding who He is.
One false idea about God that I bought into in my past is that it is okay to worship Him through other things and other traditions that are not from Him but pretend to honor Him. I enjoyed the other traditions, accepting them as if they had come from the God of the Universe. One day I decided to get to know Him better, so I began reading and studying His Word sincerely looking for Truth. I found that the power of God, the wrath of God is real in history and for us today. To deny that is to lose your life. To refuse to deal with complacency about His Laws, which is where I was spiritually, is to deny Him. To not live according to His ways He has made clear in His word is sin. If we don't humble ourselves and deal with the pretense of being a follower of God when we really aren't, we continue to live in sin and He will deal with us. He makes it clear He will not allow that to be in His Kingdom. Any who insist on combining worship of Him with the pagan's fun and glittering ways of worship is living in sin, (Deuteronomy. 12:30-31) as are any who insist that His laws have changed (Matthew 5:17-18). As a result, they think its okay to live however we want. But, nowhere in His Word has He granted us the permission to make our own laws. It is very easy to create in our minds what He is like if we don't seriously study His Word. If we have His Spirit within us and listen to Him, we won't make that mistake, but if we listen to others who we think are smarter or more learned instead, then we push down and grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in essence saying we don't really want Him, opening ourselves up to leaving His protection.
In Deuteronomy 28:1-14 God lists all the blessings He wants to give us to make a wonderful life for us, if we will humble ourselves and obey Him and follow all of His commandments. But, if we refuse, He will not give us those blessings, but the cursings instead that come from the lack of Him in our life will rule and overwhelm us.
Things are things, people are people, relationships are relationships. Make sure they are where they belong in your heart, a distant second to God.
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