It’s Time to Smash Your Idols

Knowing God’s truth is an absolute necessity in our
journey to freedom, but so is our truthfulness. Psalm 51:6 says God
desires “truth in the inner parts” (NIV). God’s truth and our
truthfulness are both needed in order to gain complete freedom in
Christ.

I mention the importance of honesty because I may be
about to get more honest than some of you can stand. I ask you to
consider what I have to say: Many Christians are not satisfied with
Jesus.

Before you call me a heretic, let me set the record
straight: Jesus is absolutely satisfying. In fact, He is the only means
by which any mortal creature can find true satisfaction.

However, I believe a person can receive Christ as Savior,
serve Him for decades and meet Him face to face in glory without ever
experiencing satisfaction in Him.

Rather than waste our effort on worthless things, God
wants us to find satisfaction in Him. When we look to other sources, we
are guilty of idolatry.

The True Source of Satisfaction

In Isaiah 55, the prophet contrasts the world’s attempt
to find satisfaction with what God provides. It is one of the most
poetic and comely expressions of grace in either the Old or the
NewTestament.

“‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and
you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost’”(v. 1).

On the heels of the invitation, God poses the question
that haunts every generation of Adam’s descendants, “‘Why spend money
on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?’” (v.
2). In effect, God is asking, “Why do you work so hard for things that
are never enough, can never fill you up and are endlessly insufficient?”

Like a frustrated parent determined to get through to his
child, God says, “‘Listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul
will delight in the richest of fare’” (v. 2).

Satisfaction in Christ can be a reality. I know from experience, and I want everyone to know how complete He can make us feel.

I believe God’s prescription for those who possess an
inner thirst and hunger they cannot fill is implied in Isaiah 55:6:
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”

I believe God creates and activates a nagging
dissatisfaction in every person for an excellent reason: He doesn’t
want anyone to perish (see 2 Pet. 3:9).

God wants everyone to come to repentance. He gave us a
will so we could choose whether or not to accept His invitation, but
God purposely created us with a need that only He can meet.

Many come to Christ out of their search for something
missing; yet after receiving His salvation, they go elsewhere for
further satisfaction. Christians can be miserably dissatisfied if they
accept Christ’s salvation yet reject the fullness of daily relationship
that satisfies.

Dissatisfaction is a “God-thing.” It’s only a terrible
thing when it fails to lead us to Christ, because the only thing that
will truly satiate our thirst and hunger is Him.

Dismantling the Idols

Realizing that God desires for us to find genuine
satisfaction in Him helps us discover a primary obstacle in our journey
to freedom in Christ: settling for satisfaction in anything else. God
gave this practice a name I was unprepared to hear—idolatry.

After serious meditation, I realized the label made
perfect sense no matter how harsh it seemed. Anything we try to put in
a place where God belongs is an idol.

To experience real freedom in Christ, we must remove the
obstacle of idolatry. We begin by recognizing the obstacle as idol
worship, but we may find removing it difficult.

Other obstacles to freedom, such as unbelief and pride,
can be removed effectively by an act of the will. But our idols—things
or people we have put in God’s place—can take much longer to remove.

Some of them have been in those places for many years,
and only the power of God can make them budge. We remove them by
acknowledging their existence and admitting their inability to satisfy
us fully.

The nation of Israel struggled horribly with the sin of
idolatry. We can observe some of the results in the lives of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.

Isaiah recorded what he saw when he looked at Judah and Jerusalem. The passage sounds hauntingly like prosperous America.

He said of Israel: “They are full of superstitions from
the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands
with pagans. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to
their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their
chariots” (Is. 2:6-7).

In the first words of verse 6, Isaiah wrote, “You have
abandoned Your people.” Isaiah concluded that he saw no sign of God’s
presence there.

God had promised not to abandon them, and He didn’t. But
where sin is rampant He is certainly capable of removing the signs of
His presence.

The nation of Israel had been given everything, yet they
refused to receive and be satisfied. They traded in what their hearts
could know for what their eyes could see.

Isaiah reminds us that a person’s idols can profit him
nothing and will ultimately reap shame (see Is. 44:10-11). He gives us
several glimpses at the destructiveness of idols.

In Isaiah 44:12, he wrote: “The blacksmith takes a tool
and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he
forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his
strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.” People can become so
engrossed in their idols that they no longer pay attention to their
physical needs.

According to Isaiah, idols can also take the form of
humans. “[The carpenter] shapes it in the form of man, of man in all
his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine” (v. 13). We can apply this
point literally. At some time each of us has exalted someone to a place
where only God belonged.

Even after such a catalog of idolatry, God promised, “‘I
will not forget you’” (v. 21). The mercy of God is indescribable, isn’t
it?

He swept away their offenses like a cloud, their sins
like the morning mist. As we face some of the idols we have worshiped
in our quest for satisfaction, we need never doubt the mercy of God. He
asks one thing: “‘Return to Me, for I have redeemed you’” (v. 22).

There is a strong tie between our quest for satisfaction
and the worship of idols. This is due to the fact that the void God
created in our lives for Himself will demand attention.

Filling the Void

We look desperately for something to satisfy us and fill
the empty places. Our craving is so strong that the moment something or
someone seems to meet our need, we feel an overwhelming temptation to
worship it.

In my opinion, one of the most thought-provoking verses
in Isaiah 44 is verse 20. Read it carefully: “He feeds on ashes, a
deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, ‘Is not
this thing in my right hand a lie!’”

Fresh conviction washes over me like a squall. How many
times have I fed on ashes instead of feasting on the life-giving Word
of God?

How many times has my deluded heart misled me? How many times have I tried to save myself?

I could fall on my face at this moment and praise God
through all eternity for finally awakening me to say, “This thing in my
right hand is a lie.”

I can remember one thing in particular I held on to with
a virtual death grip. I also remember the harrowing moment God opened
my eyes to see what a lie I had believed. I cried for days.

I originally thought this lie was a good thing. My heart,
handicapped in childhood, had deluded me. Although I didn’t realize it
at the time, I eventually worshiped it.

My only consolation in my idolatry is that I finally
allowed Him to peel away my fingers and, to my knowledge, I have
grasped only His hand since.

I plunged to the depths before I discovered satisfaction. And I pray to settle for nothing less the rest of my days.

I am very aware that Satan will constantly cast idols before me. But I hope never to forget that I could fall again.

Beloved, whatever we are gripping to bring us
satisfaction is a lie—unless it is Christ. He is the Truth that sets us
free (see John 8:32).

We easily can be led into captivity by seeking other
answers to needs and desires that only God can meet. Perhaps you’ve
experienced an empty place deep inside that you tried your best to
ignore or to fill with something other than God.

If you are holding anything in your craving for
satisfaction right now, would you be willing to acknowledge it as a
lie? Would you lift it before Him and confess it as an idol?

God does not condemn you. He calls you.

Will you open your hand to Him? He is opening His to you.

Beth Moore is a well-known Bible teacher whose
speaking engagements carry her all over the world. She is the author of
several books, including, A Heart Like His, Praying God’s Word and To Live Is Christ, all from Broadman and Holman Publishers. Adapted from Breaking Free by Beth Moore, copyright © 2000. Published by Broadman and Holman. Used by permission.