Idolatry, Idols and Worship

The other day I was once again in the pool, swimming with my waterproof iPod, and I heard an awesome track on the second disc (“Gods with a Little ‘g’”) of Leave Thy Parents by Martha Kilpatrick.

“You cannot have two masters. In 1 John 5:21 AMP, John wrote this to the overcomers: Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)—[from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life]. We’re in danger of dipping into idolatry and bowing our knee at any moment because we’re worshipers. We were created to worship and we worship. The question is not whether, the question is what do we worship and who do we worship.”

I am for Worship

Just amazing! God knows, because He created me to be a worshiper, that I am going to worship something. And as I wrote in my recent posts, it can even be my idea of God rather than actually God! This is both frightening and comforting. Frightening because of the reality of my propensity for idolatry, but comforting that my God made me with this in mind—and He has the ability to keep me.

Here is another morsel gleaned from listening to Martha:

“If you have an idol, you can even read the Word of God but won’t be able to get it. You only believe your God” (Leave Thy Parents, “Gods with a Little ‘g’”, Martha Kilpatrick).

This is all just incredible. I listen to and believe my choice of gods. I know I’ve had idolatry in my life. Before being saved it seemed that if it moved (and even sometimes when it didn’t), I’d bow. I don’t know if there’s a golden calf out there I haven’t bowed to. And why? Because I am a worshiper!

I’ve been created to worship. It would be ignorant to fight my making and try to prevent worshipping, because I WILL worship. We can’t say, “I just won’t do that.” We can’t help it because it’s who we are. But what I can do is yield to the God who designed me to worship HIM, and Him alone.

Shameful Idols and Idolatry

A clear sign of my idolatry is shame. We become ashamed of our idols and rightly so! Idolatry is shameful. God engrafted into our conscience the natural response of turning our face from Him—SHAME. It’s a safeguard on our souls and spirits, a warning flag. As long as we haven’t seared our conscience, it will cry out when we displace God.

So how does God bring us back from our idols? Oh He does it so perfectly. Sometimes all the correction that is needed comes directly from our idols. They burn us, they fail us, and they turn against us. Praise God, He turns our idols against us, and let’s our conscience burn. The external and internal pressure is usually all that is needed to send us screaming back to the One God.