What idols do you have in your life? Who do you idolize? Who do you put on a pedestal? What is your top priority? Have you consciously thought about your priorities, or do you simply live with them without taking notice? Where is God on your priority list?
We all look up to somebody and it may come to the point idolizing them. As children, we look up to our parents, maybe even as adults. We may have a mentor who took us under their wing that we look up to. Perhaps we see someone from a distance we admire and long to be like.
The command God gave the Israelites after bringing them out of Egypt still applies to us today. Just as he brought them out of slavery, he has freed us from slavery. We are no longer slaves to sin because of God. We are no longer slaves to our culture because of God. Because of what God has done for us, we are to honor him.
It’s interesting that God states we are not to make idols from anything in heaven or on earth. In other words, do not worship angels, only God. Do not worship the stars, only God. Do not worship the sun or moon, only God. Why? God created all of them. We may not be inclined to worship any of those. We may believe that is a no-brainer.
Worshiping things on earth become much more difficult. There are tangible things here on this earth that we tend to worship, even if we do so unknowingly. Those things can range from various possessions to people we know. The only way we can determine if we are worshiping something or someone rather than God is to take time to evaluate our actions, what or who we are spending our time on, and compare it to the time we spend with God.
I pray we all pause to evaluate what we are spending our time on. I pray we cast off idolizing anyone or anything more than God. I pray each one of us will make God our top priority. Evaluate your actions. Evaluate what or who you spend your time on. Cast off your idols. Make God your top priority.
Exodus 20:2-4 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Marty Pressey 