Idols

Addiction is a form of idolatry. It may not be the reason we become addicted to whatever controls us. The thing we cannot manage. A simple definition for an idol is something of extreme devotion. That something could be drugs, alcohol, sex, smartphone, shopping, and so on. Our idol is anything that we place ahead of God. Church attendance can be an idol if it has more importance than God has in our lives. We can identify our idols by paying attention to what we turn to in order to meet our needs or desires. Most of the time we don’t realize that we have set up an idol. Edward T. Welch states in his book, “Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness,” “We choose idols in part because we believe that they will give us what we want.” When we turn to idols we seek relief, pleasure, or to feel better about a situation. Idols are the way we escape uncomfortable situations. 

The Bible has a lot to say about idols. All of which tell us not to have them. Look at the first two commandments. First, you shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). The second commandment tells us, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (v. 4). So the Ten Commandments informs us how God feels about idols. He tells us, don’t have them. But here we are setting up idols in our lives. We think we can find relief in our idols, but the relief we feel is temporary so we keep returning to it to get what we want. But then it fades and we are worse off than when we began. But return we do, again and again, chasing a temporary experience of relief. However, our idols are not a fix, they don’t give us a long lastly satisfaction.

1 Samuel 12:21 reads, “Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.” Here again God is telling us not to turn toward idols. We are instructed to not turn away from Him. Notice the useless? God wants us to know that our idols are useless. They cannot give us what we need. They cannot provide us with the lasting satisfaction we so desperately seek. On top of being useless, idols can do us no good. They don’t possess the power to give us what we want. Lasting satisfaction cannot be found in our idols. We also see that our idols cannot rescue us. They have no saving power in them. If we look at the idol we are addicted to we find that we are not in a better place because of it. Our idols do not truly make our life better. They can’t rescue us, but they can imprison us, ensuring that we return time and time again. At the close of the verse we find the word useless again. God wants to emphasize that our idols are useless.

Satisfaction comes though Jesus. We need to place God at the head of our lives. This means removing our idols. The idols we have trusted we disappoint us. They will not give us what we want. Only God can give us what we want. God alone can provide us with lasting satisfaction.