Subtle Idolatry

https://odb.org/MY/2021/08/27/the-ultimate-healer

I think the issue highlighted by today’s ODB devotional is one that we could still be facing today, but subtly. The Israelites as we know faced idolatry constantly. As they settled in the Promised Land after the 400-year plus sojourn in Egypt, they slowly absorbed the cultures of the surrounding nations and that included the worship of idols.

As believers, we surely do not have an altar of idols at home and neither do we pray using joss sticks. Those are clear cut practices that if we had done in our old life, we surely would have left them behind in our new life in Christ. But idolatry can come in various subtle forms, like our worship of famous people or idols (pun unintended) or even practices “we swear by” (doesn’t mean we really swear, just an expression or idiom). We could have our own bronze snake that Moses made that King Hezekiah destroyed – some tried and tested method of doing things that have now become like an idol that we worship. It doesn’t replace God and thus is not an idol in the strictest sense but if we place more reliance on that methodology than God, it has the potential to overwhelm and engulf us or the enemy could use it to divert us away from God.

I think one way to overcome this and prevent something else taking over God’s place in our lives is to always depend on God in all the things that we do whether at work, church or in ministry and be always prepared to depart from our usual practices when God prompts us. When the Holy Spirit nudges us to go another way or use another approach, go ahead and obey. Our confidence must be in God and not our human ways. If we have a bronze snake in our lives, it’s high time we take appropriate steps to eliminate it from our lives! To God be all the the glory, for the things He has done and is doing in our midst and for the things He will doing!