A lot of people turn to food or alcohol for comfort. Others spend all their time and energy pursuing romantic love. We can spin our lives around sex or physical pleasure or escapism. Money, fame and accomplishment call to us. They look like a pathway to our best life, but when we let them displace God, they stop being good things, and become our master.
An idol is anything that calls to us so strongly we’d rather respond to that call than to God. An idol is anything that replaces the authority and position that God wants in your life. It’s the thing your life revolves around. The thing that determines where you go, what you do and what you spend your money on. It’s where you go to be saved. We need to remember the One who saved us.
Because here’s the thing about idols—they demand everything and they leave you with nothing. They have no life of their own, so they can only extract from you. They take and take and take until there is nothing left of the real you. Whereas God gives you everything and guides you to an even better life. He gives and gives and gives until you become the real you. He started the good work in you. And he will finish it, if you are patient and listen to his call. God doesn’t just save you; He makes you into all you were meant to be.
