{"id":38185,"date":"2023-02-21T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/?post_type=blog&p=38185"},"modified":"2023-02-20T09:45:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T16:45:28","slug":"the-idols-hiding-in-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.boundless.org\/blog\/the-idols-hiding-in-my-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Idols Hiding in My Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

I always thought I\u2019d have life figured out by now. As a kid, I was sure I would figure everything out before I turned 18. Surely by that magical age of adulthood, I would know exactly what to do to have the perfect life.<\/p>\n

Back then, I thought I knew what my adult self would be like: I\u2019d be an independent thinker, always confident in my own perspective. I would get married and have several children, and I\u2019d never be at a loss with what to do in the situations that cropped up in daily life.<\/p>\n

I assumed my decisions and my circle of friends and acquaintances would guarantee this future for me. This was my definition of a successful life, and I idolized it.<\/p>\n

An old, old story<\/h4>\n

We\u2019re studying 1 Samuel on Wednesday nights at my church. Last week we worked through one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament: After the Philistines defeated the Israelites, the Philistines\u2019 god fell down before God\u2019s ark of the covenant.<\/p>\n

The Philistines had stashed the ark in Dagon\u2019s temple after they captured the ark in battle. The Israelites, shocked by an earlier defeat, had carelessly and insolently taken the ark into battle as a sort of talisman against continued losses. The Philistines quaked with fear when they heard that the God who routed the Egyptians was in the Israelite camp, wondering if this ark of the covenant signaled their deaths.<\/p>\n

But God is not a genie to be wielded at will. Though the ark symbolized God\u2019s presence with His people, He was never boxed inside it. Despite the Israelites\u2019 confidence (and the Philistines\u2019 fear), the heathen army captured the ark and killed the faithless priests who carried it.<\/p>\n

If this was a legend or an Aesop\u2019s fable, this is where the story would end. Silly Israelites lost their ark through their own bravado. Game over. Checkmate. Time to present the moral and move on.<\/p>\n

But this is where it gets good.<\/p>\n

The Philistines take the ark and place it next to their god, Dagon. The next morning, the priests find Dagon fallen on his face<\/a> before the ark. Likely surprised, the priests set Dagon back up.<\/p>\n

But the next day, it\u2019s even worse. Not only has Dagon fallen again, but his head and hands have broken off and are lying on the threshold of the temple.<\/p>\n

The moral of this story is clear: The God of the universe fights His own battles.<\/p>\n

The log in our own eye<\/h4>\n

Notice how the Philistines respond to their idol\u2019s helplessness. Do they recognize that the God of Israel just beat the socks off their puny god<\/a>? Do they run to the Israelites for answers on how to follow this great God?<\/p>\n

The writer of 1 Samuel wrote that long after Dagon\u2019s falls, Philistine priests entering the temple reverently stepped over the threshold instead of on it. They honored the site of their idol\u2019s humiliation. They didn\u2019t get it. They should have chucked that idol in the river, but instead they propped it back up and kept bowing down before it.<\/p>\n

We can point our fingers at the Philistines for their clueless idolatry. But as the saying goes, \u201cwhen we point at someone else, that leaves three fingers pointing back at us.\u201d Who \u2014 or what \u2014 do I worship? Who do you worship? We say we worship the true God, who vanquished the Egyptians and much greater enemies. But is He the only one we worship? Or do we look to fake gods of our own to meet our needs?<\/p>\n

Career plans. Life goals. Political identity or opinions. Entertainment. The approval of other people. Our own ideas for our futures.<\/p>\n

We make plenty of gods ourselves.<\/p>\n

Even heavier burdens<\/h4>\n

The word \u201cidol\u201d shows up 157 times in the Bible (ESV). The Philistines weren\u2019t the only ones worshiping fake gods. In Isaiah, God reminds His people<\/a> that these fake gods were made of wood \u2014 they were mute and deaf. In the Philistines\u2019 case, their idol was also handless and headless when in the presence of the God of Israel.<\/p>\n

These fake gods even had to be carried, God told Jeremiah to remind the people. The idols that people trusted for guidance and victory literally added burdens for those who worshiped them.<\/p>\n

Idol worshipers looked to their idols for victory and success, and instead found only heavier burdens and greater exhaustion. We look to our idols to satisfy and fill us, and what are we left with? Stress, busyness, disappointment. What did we ever gain by trusting in other people or our own fragile self-sufficiency? Not only do our idols not <\/em>satisfy us, but they leave us worse off than we were without them.<\/p>\n

Back at me<\/h4>\n

The Philistines\u2019 story reminds me that no matter what I think <\/em>my idols can do for me, only the true God is worthy of my worship and allegiance. Only God saves. Only God promises to care for us, lead us through every trial, walk with us, and take us home to be with Him forever.<\/p>\n

So here I lay my idols down. And with them, all the anxiety, stress, and burden of trying to keep them propped up.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2023 Lauren Dunn. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only God deserves to occupy the throne of my heart. Anything else is a cheap \u2014 and helpless \u2014 counterfeit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":38191,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38185","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adulthood","category-personal-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Idols Hiding in My Heart - Boundless<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Only God deserves to occupy the throne of my heart. 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