I am curious to know what are the idols in your life that you are putting before God? 🤔
This is something that I can 100% relate to because of my many years of singleness. And I know some of you singles out there can relate, but this doesn’t have to be just about singleness, it could be about anything you’re putting before God. Is it your marriage? Finances? Job? Business? Kids? Anything at all can be an idol, if we put it before God.😍💍💰💑
I was reading my morning devotional, Jesus Calling, my absolute fave! I love to read it every day, because it really gives me a sense of how I think Jesus would be speaking to me.
Here’s a excerpt from it:
“Anything that you desire more than me becomes an idol. When you are determined to get your own way you blocked me out of your consciousness instead of single mindedly pursuing some goal. Talk with me about it. Let the light of my presence shine on this pursuit so that you can see it from my perspective. If the goal fits into my plans for you, I will help you reach it.”
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Waiting on God
If we have something that we are waiting on …for me, it was singleness until my mid 40s. Can you imagine women, how long that is? 😜 That’s a long time when you’re STILL single. I know some of you may be waiting on a new job, you want to get out of your current job, you may be waiting on a sign that you should start a business, maybe it’s a turnaround in your marriage, more money to come your way. It could be anything; whatever it is, we tend to hold onto these things, and that’s all we focus on; it becomes our idol.
God & Jealousy??
God is a jealous god. God does not like us to focus on anything besides him. He has every right to be a jealous God, because HELLO, He created us!! He knows us better than anybody could ever even begin to know us. As it says in the bible, “He knows every hair on our head.” He knows every thought in our mind, He knows what’s going to happen the second before it happens. He created the universe, He created us and He knows where our life is going and the direction that it’s going in. So you can bet your bottom dollar, He has every right to be jealous when we put something before Him.
Exodus 20: 3-6 You shall have no other gods before me. 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. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Unfortunately, we all do it! We put almost everything before Him and it becomes such a habit to focus on those “idols” that it becomes a burden on our shoulders. In my case, with the singleness, when I got old enough to start dating that’s all I thought about: “Why is everybody married but me? What is wrong with me? Where is my husband? What is taking him so long?” 🤦♀️🤦♀️ I thought about it constantly. It became a burden on my shoulders. Obviously I was not ready (or I like to say, my hubby wasn’t ready 😂😂), or God would have POOF 🎆, brought him right to me. No matter what idol you are clinging to, God sees what we don’t see. He knows ALL things!
God Sees What We Can’t
God sees it all and knows it all. As painful as your struggle may be, He has something great in the wings for you. We don’t know what God’s thoughts are, what His timetable is, what the big picture holds, but what we must do is…stay focused on Him. And that’s what God wants from us. Don’t keep your focus on that “idol”, but only on Him. I can promise you that you will feel a sense of peace when you do that.
God knows that the “not so great guy” you’re dating is not “the one”. He knows there is a much better job out there for you. He knows that your sickness is going to eventually bring great blessings into your life…. Just remember, God sees the big picture and all we can see if what’s ahead of us.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
How Do We Stop Focusing on Our Idols?
Don’t you think your life could be so much better and more peaceful if we put God first everyday and not our “issues” ??? I wrote a book, “But First, Pray”, and in this book, I talk about my struggle with this very issue and how I learned to make that daily time for God.
- God wants us to start our day thanking Him; start with a grateful mindset
- Praise Him for all He’s done in your life and continues to do
- Start your day in prayer; if you’re busy, just begin with 5 minutes. Wrote a blog post to help with this: Morning Routine with God
- Try to get in just a little bit of Bible time daily; this should really help: Easiest Ways to Start Reading the Bible
- Start journaling your daily prayers: How to Reach God through Journaling
- Focus on Him throughout the day by listening to worship music, praying throughout the day, beginning and ending your day in prayer; basically giving your day to Him.
God can be in charge of our lives much better than we can. We’ve proved pretty well how we can handle our own lives🤣🤣🤣 God can!!
So, we need to give our schedule to God, we need to give our job to God, our marriage to God, our singleness to God; All things to God.
This is NOT easy, but beginning your every single day with our Creator, WILL make all the difference in your life.
1 Chronicles 16:11 “Look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face always.”
Quick Tip: Every time that idol veers its ugly head (your singleness, you’re thinking about your job, your finances, marriage, etc) STOP🛑, seek His face, and just PRAY 🙏. You can do it silently, you can do it in the car, you can go to a closet and yell, but, “Seek His face always.”
If you need to spend your entire day thinking, “Help me Jesus!” That’s okay. God wants you to turn to Him in good times and bad.
Time to stop making an idol out of our worries, things, and desires, and focus on God first and God will bring us the desires of our hearts. And don’t we want our desires to match up with His?
Tell me about how you conquer this in your life? Share some great tips with us about how you turn your focus away from your “idols” and onto God…
YouTube: https://youtu.be/MIAg38oR8HA
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