Psalm 115:8: “Those who make them are like them; / So is everyone who trusts in them.”

April 30th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Idols are an illusion made to look, by the material they are manufactured from, very valuable or important. They may look precious but they are inferior in every way to the real God. This verse tells us that the people who make idols, false gods, and every person who places their faith (trust) in those gods will become like them. This truth is played out in 2 ways. First, people make idols like themselves or what they wish they themselves were. Second, people become like the idols they worship. False idols still abound around us in this present age. We have sports idols, music idols, and movie idols that many people desire to become just like. If a person begins to worship a certain sports or rock star, they began to take on that star’s value system.

We have watched patients in hospital beds come to grips with the fact that they have trusted their whole life in an insensate, unfeeling idol. A patient gets no help by crying out to money when they are dying of liver cancer. There is no aid to be found by pleading to intellect when death looms over your bed. Praying to sex or power or status is useless when a massive coronary is about to stop your heart from beating.

The sin of idolatry is uncovered by asking 2 questions. 1) “What is your most prized personal possession?” 2) “Would you be willing to give it up if Jesus asked you to?” Of course if we cannot answer yes to the second question, then that thing has taken God’s place in our hearts and has become our idol. God Almighty told us to get used to the idea of having no other gods before Him here on earth, because there is only one God in heaven, and it is not me or you.

“LORD, please don’t let us make any room for idols to creep into our hearts. We know that You only have the words of life.”