The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)
If anything or anyone is on the throne of our lives – save God alone – we are to crush it, slay it, demolish it. God will have no other god’s before Him. Our hearts will often delude us into thinking these other things are good – and perhaps they are in and of themselves – yet they are not best - to say the least - when they become our priority. Also, our heavenly Father knows all too well how a divided heart will not stand. He knows our innermost thoughts and motives too – even the ones we can be self-deluded by – successfully hiding them from others and amazingly even from ourselves.
We have a tendency to fall prey to the things that bring more glory to us than to Him. We are called to radiate His light not our own. Our idols are rarely constructed intentionally either. We enjoy something and then we start enjoying it too much, Amen? We must watch our hearts closely as we are easily deceived. The wise king said, “The man who fears God will avoid all extremes” and “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 7:18B; 12:13B-14). God neither overlooks nor winks at sin. It cost Him the life of His Son.
We are to watch our lives and doctrines closely. Anything that causes distance between us and God can become a stronghold, an addiction, a Delilah. We are to live our lives with open hands – not grasped. What God gives He desires for us to enjoy but whenever we discover ourselves loving something too much – perhaps even more than Him - it becomes an idol. The act or the thing does not necessarily make it an idol, it is our focus and attention and love for it that does. That is to be God’s place in our hearts and He will not share His throne with anything or anybody. Our idols often stem from insecurity or fear or pride and it saddens our Father when we reach for fulfillment apart from Him. Furthermore, we will never find them sufficient to meet our vast canyon of need.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)