Go ahead and ask yourself this question: have I given an idol a place in my life?

You might be wondering, “what in the world are you talking about? There are no statues in my house. I’m not bowing down to a pagan god. I haven’t melted down any jewelry to fashion a calf.” That’s all great! But, that doesn’t mean your life is idol-free and at the very least it doesn’t mean that the temptation to place something at or near the level of God-like status in your life isn’t there.

If you’re familiar with the Bible or have grown up around the church, words like idols, false gods, graven images may be something you’ve heard before. These words can become over-exposed at times and lose their meaning. They can also sound off-putting and bizarre if we have no concept of how they apply to modern-day living.

This past Sunday, I quoted an author named Ken Sande. In his book, The Peacemaker, he writes:

“Most think of an idol as a statue of wood, stone, or metal worshiped by pagan people…In Biblical terms, it is something other than God that we set our heart on, that motivates us, that masters and rules us, or that we trust, fear, or serve.”

Instead of asking ourselves whether or not we’ve given an idol a place in our lives, we can begin to pinpoint if we’ve subtly done this by taking good things that God has given us and made them ultimate things in our lives. Here’s a better set of questions to help find this out:

What do I have my heart set on?

What can I not live without?

What motivates me?

What controls me?

What do I serve with my time, energy, and resources?

None of the things on your list right now will be a graven image, a wooden statue, or a false god. Yet, as the people of God, we’ve been called to place Him first in all of life, with no divided loyalties. The first two commandments on God’s Top Ten list show us that God takes His place in our lives seriously. (Exodus 20:3-6)

In this series we’re going to expose some of the “Shiny gods” of our age. Those things that seek to, maybe not completely usurp God’s rightful place in our lives, but work their way right next to Him…which is just as bad and might actually end up being worse for us because on the one hand we’re professing our absolute confidence in God but placing our trust in lesser things as they become our functional gods.

Remember this:

Where idols hold us captive, God sets us free.

God is a liberating God of love.

A love so strong it smashes the idols that set themselves up in our hearts.

Consider taking inventory today and asking God to show you where you’ve made Him less than what He actually is in your life. Even if He’s 1A on the list, nothing is worthy of being 1B. He’s first, everything else falls into place well after that.