For many years I have worshipped at the altar of the sloppy cheeseburger and fries. In my worship I always washed the hastily chewed and swallowed food down with a cold Coke. This consistent lifestyle worship of the appetite idol led to a number of side-effects in my life:
- Using money to ensure access to my idol instead of stewarding it for God's Kingdom and glory;
- Lying in the form of deceitful "hiding" and partial answers to potentially idol-revealing questions;
- A long, slow roller-coaster of weight gain and loss, living for 25 years within a 65 pound range of weight and thus acting as lord over my body, which Christ died to purchase for Himself;
- Living with the low energy level that comes with a diet of junk;
- Meager fruit of life and ministry because of constant grieving of the Holy Spirit and His filling;
- The detachment from others that comes when this appetite idol was occupuying my mind with thoughts of "I can't wait until this is over so that I can get to my beloved Whopper," or "What excuse do I need to come up with to get me out of the house so I can sneak in a super-sized coke?"
- Having the joy of the Lord choked out of my life just like the fat of my idol was slowly clogging my body's arteries;
- I stole from my family, giving to them a half-husband and half-dad; and I was...
- Betraying the glory of God for the glory of grease. Inevitably I would show in my words and my passion my great love and satisfaction for food. This siphoned off true love and satisfaction in the all-satisfying person and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To name a few.
How did God get ahold of my idolatrous heart?
He opened my eyes to the sin and idolatry that was there. In my rationalizing, compromising heart I had minimized my sin, compared myself favorably with others, and just plain refused to think too deeply about it. While reading John Owen's "The Mortification of Sin in Believers" I was grabbed over and over by God's Spirit and by the Word of God. I was caught between a rock of long-developed habit and the draw of the grace of God. The time was very dark. There was nothing to see but decades of betraying my Father and My Savior and Lord for a pot of beans, just like Esau. In the darkness there was one thing left for me: the character of God. He receives the repentant, confessing heart (1 John 1:9). He turns darkness to light. He "breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron" Psalm 107:16. He strengthens weak, fearful hands to toss long-held idols into the river of "never again." He opened my eyes somewhat to the sinfulness of my sin and to the astounding price my Savior had paid on the cross to make me His.
My counsel to you if you are struggling with habitual worship of idols in your heart: SEEK THE LORD. Go to Him and cry out to Him for deliverance. Plant your heart in the Word of God, for "The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" Psalm 19:7. Tell the truth; to yourself...to God. Enlist the prayer help of others. If you can get ahold of it, read Owen's work referred to above. Refuse to listen to the whines and excuses and rationalizations of your heart. Don't compare yourself to others. Let the Word of God be your magnifying glass. Realize that life and eternity are at stake here. KNOW that the Lord is gracious and compassionate, full of mercy and that He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin (Exodus 34:6,7). Pray Psalm 51: 1-12 over and over and over. Ask the Lord to show you the sinfulness of your sin. Ask Him to show you just how much you have been forgiven. Ask Him to show you the JOY and SATISFACTION that is in Jesus that you have been tossing aside for mud pies.
Ask Him to show you WHO you have been pushing back into the closet of your heart in order to worship your pitiful, deceitful, Satan-puppeteered idols.
Keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. He WILL answer (Matthew 7:7,8)
May the Lord who delights in setting captives free and regaining the hearts of His own for His exclusive worship make your heart an IDOL-FREE zone.
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