June 4, 2023 | Duane Roberts
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The Israelites had witnessed God’s mighty defeat of Pharaoh, His power to part the sea, and His provision in the desert. Yet, within days of Moses’ absence the people gather their gold and silver to make a golden calf to worship. They knew the power of Yahweh, and still, they made for themselves an idol.
Many people today think that idols are what primitive people worshipped, that in our modern era, we’ve evolved beyond our worship of idols. In reality, we have developed modern day idols who rule our hearts and demand our allegiance.
According to Tim Keller, an idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”
Idols are not inherently bad things, they are good things that have become more valuable and necessary to us than God. All idols take our focus off of God and place it on ourselves. These modern-day idols promise to make us feel good, significant, and happy, but they cannot deliver on their promise, because we were not created to find pleasure, worth, and joy in anything other than God.
How then do we overcome our idolatry? We replace our idols. We will always worship something, so we must turn our hearts to the true source of its home–God himself. We replace our idols by repenting of them, and rejoicing in Jesus instead.
We fix our eyes on what Jesus did for us on the cross:
We do not overcome our heart’s idols in isolation; we do it in community. Whether it’s a small group, a community, or recovery group, we find freedom when we join with others in praying, repenting, and seeking heart transformation. If you’re struggling in any area of your life, don’t go through it alone. Find a group of people who will love and support you on your journey toward healing and freedom.
Danny Saavedra is a licensed minister who has served on staff at Calvary since 2012, managing the Calvary Devotional and digital discipleship resources. He has a Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling and Master of Divinity in Pastoral Ministry from Liberty Theological Seminary. His wife Stephanie, son Jude, and daughter Zoe share a love of Star Wars, good food, having friends over for dinner, and studying the Word together as a family.