Idoling: The Cost of Idols and Freedom of Releasing them

I could feel my chest tighten every time I looked at my phone. Five phone checks later and two looks at the “sent” emails to make sure I had emailed the right person as well as managing a desire to email again, I realized I was trying to take control of an outcome. With clarity only the Holy Spirit can provide, I recognized that I was idoling.

Idoling

As you have already guessed, the term “idoling” is not a recognized word in the dictionary. However, I am going to believe it is one in the Kingdom! In fact, the subject of idolatry is mentioned over two hundred times in scripture. Moreover, the first commandment of the ten commandments states, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).  God is clear that worshipping (idoling) anything but him creates a chasm between us and him. We cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Either God or the idol will have our devotion.

I had turned my focus onto my desires rather than keeping it on the One who gave me those desires. I was devoted to making my desires come to fruition based on my own when, where, and how. This was taking my energy, brain space, and more importantly, heart space. For others of us, idoling can take various forms as well as impact us differently, but we all experience the expense of not keeping God first.

Idols and the Cost   

Idols come in a multitude of forms. However, here are three that we might experience battling:

1)        Self

Scripture is full of instances where people decided to do what they thought best when and wherever they wanted rather than keeping their focus on the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God. Heck, this started in the Gensis 2! And continued through scripture and is still present today.

We are a culture of convenience: What can I do to feel better now? What can I do to get my needs/wants/desires met now? But God’s ways are higher than ours and his timing is not on our schedule (Isaiah 55:8). When we try to force outcomes, try to control for our own benefit, we are idoling. The cost can be our freedom and peace.

For instance, by me trying to make things happen, I became trapped in the vicious cycle of trying to prove my worth. It cost me the freedom that Christ so readily gives (2 Corin. 3:17) and the peace of knowing my worth and value in Christ (Psalm 139:13-14). For me, that’s too high of a price. I had to recenter my focus on God and his ways.

2)        Desires of our Hearts

 This may seem like an odd one. If God Gives us the desires of our heart as Psalm 37:4 states, why shouldn’t we focus on them? Ahhh, but we must keep reading Psalm 37.

NIV

4Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways.

 TPT 

4Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh,

and he will give you what you desire the most.

5Give God the right to direct your life,

and as you trust him along the way,

you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!

6He will appear as your righteousness,

as sure as the dawning of a new day.

He will manifest as your justice,

as sure and strong as the noonday sun.

7Quiet your heart in his presence

and wait patiently for Yahweh.

And don’t think for a moment that the wicked [or others in general],

in their prosperity,

are better off than you

I love the way both of these translations communicate how we are to handle our desires.

Verses 5-7 are clear: we are to commit those desires back to God – depend on the Lord and “Wait and trust the Lord.” Additionally, we are to focus on God, not others and their successes. Personally, I often find myself doing the opposite. And this is when I find myself struggling with my self-worth.

However, when we release our desires and depend on the Lord, it is there we find freedom and know his banner over us is love (Song of Songs 2:4).

3)        Ifs

 “If I get this job, I will be happy.”

“If I have this money, I won’t feel stressed.”

“If I get/have…..” and you feel in the blank. When the “ifs” become what we strive for, we have shifted our focus from depending on God and submitting to him, to focusing on ourselves and pleasures of this world. It is certainly not wrong to want things or enjoy pleasurable things; however, when that is what drives us, we have made an idol.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus states, “Seek first his kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.” Our first commitment is to seek God’s will, what will build his kingdom. The other things we desire, if those desires support the kingdom and God’s protection over us, he will supply them…in his time.

It has not been easy for me to have publishers deny my book proposal or to not be selected as a speaker for a conference that I treasure. And I am allowed to be disappointed and sad; however, shifting my focus from the ifs to seeking God’s kingdom first helps me to accept God’s timing for the fulfillment of the desires.

Final Thoughts

 We all desire something. To desire something is not sinful or idoling. However, when that becomes our focus, when our only source of happiness, self-worth, and fulfillment comes from receiving things of this earth, we are idoling. To resist the idoling, we commit our desires back to God and seek first his kingdom. In doing so, we are “…transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).