“Dear children, keep away from
anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” 1 John 5:21
What
is an idol? It is something or someone a
person often blindly or excessively admires.
In it’s simplest terms, an idol is something or someone who steals your
focus off of God. The idol doesn’t do
the stealing; it is us. We are the ones
who gravitate toward things or people who entertain us or enthrall us to the
point where they become a fixation.
The
above verse is the last verse in John’s first letter to an unnamed group or
church. It is his last warning to them
from this correspondence. This group was
experiencing division within the brethren with some claiming spiritual
superiority and as a result leaving.
John’s purpose was to assure those remaining that the doctrine they were
taught was scripturally sound. The devil
looks for sheep who are weak or separated from the main flock. Therefore a divided church can be easy
pickin’s for him. John is stressing that
anything that causes us to take our focus off of God will weaken us spiritually
and cause us to stumble into sin.
Diversions are all around us.
They can pop up at a moments notice in the attempt to lure us from the
safety of our faith-based life. We must
be aware of the enemy’s tricks and stay within the hedge of protection the Lord
has for us. If we wander off the beaten
path we may end up in a place we never intended to go.
A
heart totally sold out for God will still stumble from time to time, but need
not fall as a result. We can catch
ourselves and continue on because in the name of Jesus Christ we can conquer
anything that comes at us. We need not
look to replace the Lord with anything else for this world only offers temporal
things that could never take God’s place.
Everything God knows we need is available to us if we will only maintain
our focus on Him. Until next time, walk
with the King and be a blessing!
No comments:
Post a Comment