Spurgeon, "A Summary of Experience and a Body of Divinity"
If you love anything better than God you are idolaters.
If there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol.
If there is anything that you seek with greater fervor-
that is your idol.
Conversion means a turning from every idol.
What do I fawn over? What do I covet? What do I need(or think I need)? Where is my treasure founded?
All good questions that I fail to ask myself often, mostly because I already know the answer isn't what I would like it to be. I know now very often that my heart is covetous because I value something above God. My heart is prideful because I have given myself more deference, usually that which is due only to God. I need something so badly because that something has gained a characteristic that should only be attributed to God.
I was telling my husband and a friend just last week that so often I have the expectation that my husband must understand and have compassion on my life and situation. Why? Does my husband have peace that surpasses understanding and He can give it to me? Does my husband offer eternal joy to me? Does my husband understand my human condition because he was experienced the essence of Humanity in a perfectly sinless and universal way? I had attributed characteristics of God to my husband that He has no right, ability or desire to hold. I looked to him to fulfil my needs as I saw them.
WRONG!
Only God can be the real Lord and master of our lives. Only God can understand the human condition purely and satisfactorily for even us. Only Christ came to die on a cross for my transgressions, there by suffering for my sins and showing His great mercy on me and you. Therefore, in light of His eternal and infinite character I should, as a finite creation, look to Him for these things that I have a desire for! My desires are not wrong, but my placement of them are.
Sometimes though my desires are wrong, like the lady I saw in the grocery parking lot. I want to be worldly at times. I want to create jealousy in the hearts and minds of others. Then My desire is the idol because my desire is what is wrong.
Idols are so insidious. Sneaky. Blatant. Tempting. Do you find any of these things on the throne of your heart?
1 comment:
Constantly, and I'm constantly squirming with them until I finally just confess them!
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