How can we recognize the idols we’re holding on to? Susie and Dee Brestin explore the connection between the lies we believe and the heart idols we carry.
How to identify heart idols.
“When anything bad comes out of your mouth or out of your life there is a heart idol at work.”
Every sin we commit can lead back to some form of idolatry. As Christians, we tend to focus on the symptoms of our sin and not the heart idol that is causing the symptom.
For instance, if we have a habit of over-eating we get a better diet, or if we have a habit of losing our temper we take anger management classes. However, this method of trying to eliminate sin is flawed.
“We’re working on the symptom but we need to see the sin beneath the sin that’s causing it.”
It is imperative to understand the deep-seated heart idols that cause the sin in our lives before we try to fix them.
Heart idols come in many different varieties. Sometimes sin emanates from a desire for comfort and control. These desires aren’t necessarily sinful, unless we make ourselves the source.
Instead of looking to ourselves for comfort and control, we should look to Jesus to fill all of our needs.
What you say when you don’t say anything.
Our body language can also reveal the presence of heart idols in our lives.
We’ve all been there, standing in a long check-out line at the grocery store with a new clerk who isn’t very efficient. Our body language makes it painfully clear to everyone around us that impatience is brewing inside our hearts.
At this moment we believe that our time is more important than the clerk who is being trained. We believe we are justified for being frustrated when in reality we are frustrated because of the lack of control in the present circumstance.
“Idols cannot be removed but only replaced.”
Ask God to help you uncover the heart idols that are deeply entrenched in your heart and ask him to show you how you can replace them with Jesus.
Key Scriptures: Galatians 5:1; Proverbs 3:11-12; Exodus 20:1-3
Featured Songs: No Longer Slaves by Bethel Music; Oh Me of Little Faith by Matthew West; Cornerstone by Hillsong
