Walk away from idols

As we near the end of this book of the law, God details for the children of Israel how blessed their life can be if they will only obey Him. And yet, He also paints a much more graphic picture of the exponentially horrific life that will follow for those who use their free will to disobey... for those who choose to walk contrary to Him.

But first, God makes His appeal simple.
You shall not make idols for yourselves... (25:1)
to which I think,
Of course not!
Why would I do a thing like that?
I mean, I don't have any little.. or big, for that matter...
statues in my house that I bow down to,
that I pray to, or make offerings before.

​And then I take a breath and begin reading on, when I realize that God is not always talking about physical statues like we might think of as idols.

He is talking about the attention of our heart.
He is pointing at the places we dwell on in our mind.
He is more concerned with where we spend all of our time and attention...
of anything which may come before Him.

Because when He begins the lists of If and then...
He seems to be concerned most with our walk.
Which is really how we are living our day to day life.

Are we making things around us, things which we possess and enjoy as material goods so highly valued that we could not give them up for Him?

Has our time become our own, a controlled bank of hours that is ours alone to manipulate, with no regard for the author who gave it all?

Has our worry become the object of our focus, an insecurity that sucks dry all the joy that used to fulfill our days?

There are so many ways to make idols for ourselves that are not little... or big statues made of wood or carved of stone.
For anything that takes the place of God as our focus of worship...
becomes our god... our idol, made for ourselves.
money.
time.
materialism.
pride,
worry.
self-pity.
work.
food.
exercise.

Anything can become an idol made for ourselves...
even ourselves... our selfies...

Word of God... train me, today...
to be open to learning about Your desire for my worship,
to unclench my fists, open my hands, release my idols.

LORD, if I have made idols
of which I am unaware,
reveal them to me today.
I long to confess them to You,
to release them to You,
to worship ONLY You.

Help me today, LORD
to honor You first.