satisfaction

09
Aug
2023

Simple or Prudent? Wise or Foolish?

The simple believes everything,

But the prudent gives thought to his steps.

One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil,

But a fool is reckless and careless.”

Proverbs 14:15, 16

We all have many choices and decisions that we make throughout our days. Many of these decisions that we make are made without much conscious thought. The choices that we make daily without conscious thought have become habits in our lives. There are many books written on developing good habits, but the basis of many of our choices are based on habit. My husband gets up for work at the same time every day, walks on the treadmill, takes a shower, has a glass of OJ, and heads to work. He no longer gives a lot of thought to these activities because they have become habits in his life.

We all know the people that have habits that we would consider reckless and careless: poor diet choices, poor entertainment choices, no exercise choice, poor relationship choices, etc.

Our verses from Proverbs today start and end with the simple and the fool. The simple person is someone who is gullible. They are easily led astray usually by their desires. They think that if the desires of their heart are met they will find peace, satisfaction, and happiness. They hope that the infomercial about the next great weight loss pill will solve all of their weight struggles. They believe anything that anyone tells them and think that what they are told will meet all their needs.

This simple, gullible person is easily led astray. They are taken advantage of often and those that are manipulators love this simple gullible person. The manipulator will have a follower in the simple. The simple will have someone who they think “cares” for them. Only too often, the manipulator is taking advantage of the simple.

In order to not be simple and not be gullible, we must seek to surround ourselves with those that are prudent and wise. We must consider the end result of the decision we are deciding to make. Will this thing that I buy actually give the promised results? If I eat this extra scoop of ice cream, am I making a healthy wise choice? If I spend time watching TV, playing this video game, or scrolling through social media am I using my time wisely when there are many chores that need to be done?

The prudent and the wise person thinks before acting and decides if the choice they are making will produce God honoring results or results that are fleeting. So many people are seeking happiness, satisfaction, and having their needs met only to find out that the temporal things they are seeking to satisfy these needs will never give to them what they had hoped. The wise and prudent person sees and understands this. The wise and prudent person understands that God and a relationship with Jesus is the only thing that will satisfy. The wise and prudent person understands that the Bible is the manual for how to live life, not their fleeting desires.

The fool is reckless and careless because they think that the fleeting desires they have will be satisfied by temporal things. Look at the lives of the rich and the famous. They seem to have all that the world has to offer – fame, fortune, and power – yet they are usually looking for more. Drugs, alcohol, illicit relationships, and possessions are what they keep turning to thinking that what is around the corner will satisfy. Yet, it never does.

Spend some time evaluating your life. What are your habits? Are you spending time in God’s Word each day seeking to live according to God’s standard for joy? Or are you known to frequent some external pleasure to provide the satisfaction you are looking for, only to be let down one more time because “it” did not satisfy?

Are you simple or prudent? Wise or foolish?

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments
24
Feb
2021
Idols of the Heart

Idols of the Heart

Throughout the Old Testament, we see God commanding the people of Israel to “have no other gods before Him.” (Exodus 20:3). Yet, throughout the Old Testament we see the Israelites time and time again worshipping idols. I am currently reading through the book of Exodus and just read the account of the Golden Calf in Exodus 34. I look at these people and I think, “How quickly you have forgotten what God has done for you.” How could they forget the 10 plagues, crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, watching the Egyptian army that was coming after them be swallowed up by that Red Sea, manna, quail, water from a rock, etc.? As we come to Exodus 34, we see that they did. They forgot. All the miracles that God had done for them, quickly left their memories and they made a golden calf to worship instead.

We often think that the Old Testament stories are from a different era, a different time period, a different culture and have no relevance to today, but that is so far from the truth. These stories are very relevant to today. We may not worship a Golden Calf or make idols of Baal or other gods, but we can still be guilty of idolatry.

Often times, we think of current idols as “things.”  Things like a car, a boat, a house, a cottage on the lake, our phones, or some other inanimate object. Yet, if we dig deeper into these things, we will find that there is something else at the base of our desire for these things.

Last week, I wrote about “Think about what you are thinking about” and asked you to trace back the emotions you are having to your thoughts and then to trace those emotions back to what you are wanting.

I have written about our emotions and thoughts in a blog last year as well. Please follow this link to read more.

When we follow the trail, we will see what our idols are. Start with your emotions. Then ask yourself, “What is it that you are thinking?” This leads to our wants. Once we dig into what we want, it will lead us to our present day idols.

Emotions – Thinking – Wanting – Idols

No one really wants to go through this process. Who wants to be told that they have idols of the heart that they are worshipping? No one does, but do you ever feel like you are empty? Maybe you feel like you are in search of things that always seem out of your grasp. Striving for that sense of satisfaction or happiness that you never can attain. That is because you are seeking after an idol.

Here is a list of present day idols of the heart that many of us seek and search after:

  • Security
  • Affection/love
  • Attention
  • Satisfaction
  • Comfort/refuge/ease of life
  • Joy/happiness
  • Approval

Thinking back to what I wrote about last week – you don’t receive the recognition for an accomplishment that is truly yours to receive. What idol could we be seeking? Approval or Satisfaction

What about when your friends treat you poorly? Approval or Attention

What about when you have a “discussion” with someone and they don’t seem to care about your point of view? Love, approval.

What about when things seem too hard? Comfort, ease of life.

What about when a relationship seems too hard and yet you know that you have a responsibility to help that person see Christ? Comfort/ ease of life

God wants us to have no other gods before Him, because He knows that we will never find joy and happiness when we are worshipping these other idols.

God does not need us to worship Him. We need to worship Him.

God knows that the more we seek after the idols of our hearts, the emptier we will be. The more we seek after God and seek to worship Him and Him alone, the more joyful and fulfilled we will be.

Evaluate your emotions. What are they telling you? What are you thinking? What are you wanting? What idols of the heart are you worshipping?

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:1-4)

(There is a great book and sermon series by Brad Bigney on this topic of Idols of the Heart called Gospel Treason. This link is to the first sermon in his series on this topic.)

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments
16
Dec
2020

Which is

Over the course of the last two years, I have been training to become a certified Biblical Counselor. During this training process, I have read many books, memorized Scripture, and been mentored by a wonderful and wise man and woman. During this process of training, the Biblical principle that has convicted me the most is that of idolatry. I have always thought of idolatry like the idols in the Old Testament. As mentioned in Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Today in America, I don’t think there are too many people that are carving images out of stone and bowing down and worshipping them or sacrificing to them. I always thought of idolatry in modern day America as worshipping your car, or money, or some other treasure that you valued highly.

I felt pretty good about myself because even though I really like my car and my house and even my bike, I didn’t worship them. I never bowed down to them. I didn’t sacrifice anything to them. I didn’t pray to them. I always knew in my heart that if I had to get rid of any of the things in my life that I might consider to be treasures, I knew that I could still be content without them. I wasn’t an idolater. I loved God more than I loved anything else, but then I started to understand idolatry in a whole new light in our modern day world. Then the conviction began to take place.

Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Did you catch what this verse says is idolatry? Covetousness. Covetousness means to want what you do not have. Does this mean that if you are hungry and want a hamburger and you don’t have it in your home and you have to go to a restaurant to buy it, you are coveting? NO. What about if you want a hamburger for supper and your spouse who usually prepares all the meals serves chicken instead and you get angry with them for not having hamburgers, are you now coveting? Yes. What you want has caused you to sin.

So often we exhibit emotions that God would call sin and these emotions lead back to something that we want that we do not have. Our emotions that come out of us are a peephole into our thinking. We talked about the tie between our emotions and our thinking a few weeks ago. When the emotions of anger, bitterness, anxiety, worry, and woe is me, others would be better without me, perfectionism, control, etc. begin to show up in our lives, we must realize that there is thinking that is unbiblical and many times this unbiblical thinking has developed into an idol.

So when we start to exhibit emotions such as anger, worry or anxiety, bitterness, etc., we must examine our hearts and find out what it is that we want. I John 2:16 tells us “For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world.” So how could we put this verse into more concrete idols that we might have in our hearts that we have begun to hold dear to us? Here is a sample list.

    1. Security
    2. Affection/love
    3. Attention
    4. Satisfaction
    5. Comfort, refuge, ease of life
    6. Joy, happiness
    7. Approval

Have you ever wanted any of these things so much that you have sinned to try to get them? In America, we feel like we deserve life to be comfortable and easy. We are willing to sin in order to get that comfort and ease. How often do you feel inconvenienced when what you want your schedule to look like only to have it interrupted by a broken down car, or the kids interrupt our quiet time and we get angry at them for bothering us, or how much Covid has interrupted and inconvenienced our lives. So you may not be bowing down and worshipping your car, but you may be worshipping comfort and ease. Are you sinning in order to get what you want?

Take some time to think about what it is that you want. What emotions frequently exhibit themselves? How would others characterize you? Now what is it that you want that is causing those emotions? That is probably your idol.

Remember Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Let’s celebrate Christmas this year truly worshipping the Lord who came to earth for us, rather than trying to worship the idols in our lives that never bring true peace, hope, or joy.

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