Idols

It’s easy enough to see idols in other people’s lives.

I’ve occasionally scoffed at how someone seemed obsessed with something that is obviously (to me) unworthy of much time, attention, or money.

The problem with that is that idols trouble us all, and focusing on how other people’s priorities are misaligned obscures my own struggle with them.

Jesus couldn’t have been more in-your-face than he was here:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:37-39).

He takes the most personal of relationships—those within the family—to urge us all to consider our allegiances.

Who’s first? What’s most important? Who sits on the throne of your heart?

I’ve often wrestled with Jesus’ words in this passage, particularly when I think about my wife and kids. How could I love anyone more than them?

Does that struggle resonate with you?

These are important questions. Tough questions, extremely tough.

The Lord’s words here may be uncomfortable to think about, but their message is easy to understand.

He expects to be loved more than anything else we’ve got, and that includes our loved ones, our hobbies, our jobs, our things.

Let’s pray about it this week.

• Let’s ask the Lord to help us see where our danger spots are.
• Let’s ask him to help us think more seriously about what he says here—to put him first, to love him more, to obey him more consistently.

We’ve got idols, but our blindness to them is what makes them so dangerous.

Our goal is for God to help us see them for what they are—obstacles that keep us from enjoying the true spiritual intimacy that comes from enthroning the Lord.

Let’s pray that God will help us lose our lives in him so that he might give us the lives we were created to live.—Chuck