Keep from Idols

Thursday 11 August
READ: Exo. 20:3 - 5
MORE LESSON: II Chro. 33:15

In the text, God says, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...: Exo. 20:3-4. A god is anything that you have exalted above God in your life. It may not be a physical image but something deep in your heart that has become number one apart from God. A god is anything that has taken the place of the One True God in your heart. Whatever you adore, worship or esteem so much that nobody can come near it or even touch it is becoming an idol. Whatever you rate so high that nothing, including the things of God, compares to it in your scale of priority has become a god.
Idolatry is love for things at the expense of love of God. This includes physical things that the eyes can see or intangible things that the eyes cannot see. Whether tangible or intangible, anything that has sat upon the throne that God is supposed to sit in your heart is an idol. It could be money, children, life-partner, success, fame or recognition. People would easily condemn a man who carves graven images and makes oblations and bows to them as an idolater. However, there are people that do not bow to graven images but are also idolaters; any man that has anything that is dearer to him than God is, is in idolatry. If you have money, house or anything that you can't allow even God to touch, then that very thing is your idol. How dare a man put anything above God? The Bible says that God is a jealous God (Ex 20:5). He will not accept you placing anything above Him. 1 John 5:21 says, Little children, keep yourselves from idols.... This scripture comes out as a command and not a suggestion or advice. The commandments of God are not to be negotiated; they are rules that must be obeyed and whose disobedience will incur severe consequences. If a man continues to hold anything dearer than God, he will pay for it in the day of reckoning. God can even take away that thing that is esteemed more than Him. This is the reason many live a life of loss rather than addition.
Today I want you to search your heart and set aside anything that wants to take the place of God. Also, it might not be a thing, it might be a person. Is there any man/woman that you have now loved more than God and is taking the place of God in your heart? You had better dethrone such a person so that only God can be God in your heart. As you reverence and worship God alone and you surrender all idols at His feet, you will see the greatness of the blessing that He will bring into your life. Amen.

PRAYER/ACTION
* Father, give me honour and praise in every place where I have seen shame, in Jesus’ name.
* Lord, let me have exceptional help as I go out today.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
The sun of righteousness shall rise for me today with goodness and progress on its wings.