thinking

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
11
Nov
2020

Emotions

Have you ever wondered, “Now where did that feeling come from?” Why am I angry, depressed, anxious, frustrated, on the verge of tears, etc.? These and many other feelings are an indicator to us. We would be wise to take notice of them and consider what is causing these emotions. The best place to help us understand this is God’s Word. What does God’s Word say?

“As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”

(Proverbs 23:7)

 

When we have various emotions, it is important to ask ourselves a few questions.

 

“What are you thinking?”

 

“What are you wanting?”

 

Our emotions do not come from a vacuum. They do not come from nowhere. They come from our thinking. We may be experiencing emotions and not even realize what is causing these emotions. They came from our thinking.

 

What happens according to Proverbs 23:7 is we begin to think a certain way and we develop habits of reacting. We look at situations and think:

 

This isn’t fair.

Why did this happen to me?

I deserve better than this.

I can’t handle this.

Where is God in all of this?

This did not happen how I wanted it to happen.

 

As we think these things, we begin to respond with emotions such as anger, depression, anxiety, fear, frustration, annoyance, etc.

 

Every circumstance in life that happens to us never takes God by surprise. When we fail to trust Him, we begin to think the above thoughts, and then the emotions follow.

 

Here is the struggle we have, we have these feelings and too often we begin to act on them. We all have heard the phrases, “if it feels good, do it.” Or “do whatever makes you happy.”

 

What happens when what makes us feel good ends up feeling bad. What happens when what made you happy yesterday, makes you unhappy today. Do you see the challenge with following our emotions? They are always changing. Our emotions oftentimes are not speaking truth to us.

 

So what do we do? God has given us emotions for a reason. What is the purpose of them? Part of the purpose is to give us a key to our thoughts.

 

So what are your emotions telling you about your thoughts?

 

Do our thoughts line up with Scripture? I would say about myself that so often my thoughts do not line up with Scripture. It is something I need to work on daily, even minute by minute.

 

Many times we follow our emotions thinking that the actions that are produced by our emotions will produce the results that we are desiring. We want something, our emotions follow suit and then we act in whatever way necessary to get what we want. This then develops a pattern.

 

Here’s an example. We are driving down a 2 lane road and we come upon a sweet elderly couple taking a Sunday afternoon drive on Monday morning. You are already running late to that appointment that you need to get to. There are so many cars coming the other way, you can’t pass the sweet elderly couple. What emotions begin to be felt? Anger, fear, frustration, anxiety, etc.  How are you thinking? Won’t this couple drive faster? I need to get to my appointment or I am going to lose this opportunity. If I lose this opportunity, I won’t be able to pay my bills. So then what actions begin to follow? You might start honking. You start looking at your phone while you drive trying to find a different way- which could cause an accident.

 

This is an easy scenario to pick on this poor person, but it happens in our everyday lives. We want something and when we don’t get what we think we should get, we begin to experience emotions and so often these emotions produce sinful behavior.

 

So what is the solution?

 

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

 

This renewal of our minds needs to be a daily and sometimes even a minute by minute thing. As we are tested, we will then see what is really in our hearts. We will see what we are really thinking.

So when a situation comes into your life and you react, ask yourself “what am I thinking, what am I wanting?” This will help you to understand why you are experiencing the emotions you are having.

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