Idols; Take all forms
1 Corinthians 8:3, 4 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. Therefore concerning the eating of thing offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
Exodus 20:2-5 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…
Idols can be so many different things.
I had always thought idols were wooden or man-made things that folks worshiped. Although we had a piece of art depicting the interpretation of Jesus, I didn’t worship there. I might have glanced up occasionally and whispered I was sorry ‘those folks’ had tortured him and hung him on a cross. Several years later, although still sorry for the pain and suffering Jesus endured, I was very glad he had. His death was my freedom from sin and therefore, my eternal death and suffering. 
In Leviticus, God warns about sacrificing children. Yet many have sacrificed children to the idol Molech, “gods” to those who do not know Christ. As the commandments say, “There is only one God, and there will be no other.”
But as I deepened my reading and knowledge of God, I began to realize we have a lot of idols we get lost in. There’s money, Facebook, cell phones (why is it when they hung on a wall in our homes, we never wondered who was calling us. We took care of it once we arrived home.), movies, games, clothing, shopping, sex, and the list goes on and on. There’s power, prestige, degrees, and titles. These are superficial; not that they may not mean something in some cultures, but still they are something others see as something desirable, enviable. We idolize them; they are idols.
Idols are anything that has our minds repeatedly going to that subject, and not savoring and learning more of God and His ways. We can’t learn and grow spiritually unless we have a relationship with Him. And yet, there are so many distractions in our present world of electronics, games, queries to Google or Siri, hobbies, and so it continues.
Idols interrupt our relationship and therefore impede our growth. And they lead us into sin because our minds are fooled into thinking that we are casually playing a game, checking in on Facebook, and spending way too much money shopping. We tend to fill voids in our life with these idols.
We separate a relationship with substitutions trying to make us feel filled. We feel slightly empty, and can never figure out totally why, until we find Him and get to know Him and grow in the words He teaches. And the void begins to fill and heal. Frequently, we are not aware we have a hole, and empty place, until we accept God’s invitation and begin to learn more of Him and His desires for our lives.
I am certainly guilty of having idols. I just found jigsaw puzzles on my phone. Whoopee! Great for killing time waiting for an apt, but I was finding I was spending more and more time. I was saying things like, “Just one more game, then I will…” That’s sinful. That’s idol worship. Once it dawned on me I was doing that, I stepped away. I purposely limit myself to 2 puzzles a day. I feel it challenges my mind while it offers an escape from some of my thoughts. It’s a few moments of pleasure. If I abuse the pastime, it turns into an idol, an addiction.
Idols are anything that we use to try to fill ourselves. We must be aware of these, and not over indulge. I’m glad I’m freer than I was last week with idols. I only want to worship Him, not games, shopping, Facebook, etc. It makes ‘mybellaviews’ complete.
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