Dear children,
keep yourself from idols.
(1 John 5:21)
God wants us to remove anything in our lives that gets in the way of our relationship with Him. Anything.
The first two of the Ten Commandments make that pretty clear: “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Exodus 20:3-4).
God knows what’s best. Over and over he warns His people to flee from idols. Over and over His people ignore him.
What exactly is an “idol”? The Bible uses various ways to communicate the ultimate emptiness of idols, including words that can be translated “false gods,” “things of nothing” and my personal favorite “dung pellets.” In short, they’re things of zero value that we’re tempted to follow instead of God.
Take a good look around you today. See any potential idols? Money? Stuff? Happiness? Work? Sports? Other people? Yourself?
The internet is this for me. Yes, I use it for good such as to read the word and blog about God but for the most part, it is all about the “Dung Pellets” (Hee Hee…that was a good one!) Simply put it just consumes to much of my time, time that I could be spending with God….SIGH
Thanks for sharing, Diana. Thinking of anything apart from God as dung actually helps me keep my priorities straight. It’s a bit graphic, but it’s biblical! The internet’s a big one for me, too. The world’s pretty good at coming with ways to distract us …