Jesus often asked the question of His disciples, “Where is your faith?” What He was after was teaching
them to discover for themselves why they struggled with their faith. Today I have the distinct impression that
the Spirit of God is going to be dealing with this through a look at idolatry, the revelation of what worship is,
and how hardness of heart and unbelief come from the worship of anything other than God. It has many, many
implications and applications for our lives that will reveal why God is or is not responding to us as we would
hope. This teaching may take a few days or even weeks to fully digest and a lifetime to apply.
Idolatry is not the actual bowing down before a statue, but it is the replacement of God in the mind of
the worshipper. Col. 3:5 We must be constantly on guard that we let nothing come between us and God.
As soon as anything does, that thing is an idol.
Idolatry is not only the giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion which belonged to
God alone, but the giving to any human desire a precedence over God’s will. Further, it seems consistent
with the nature of idolatry that to serve Him from anything but love is to serve Him in idolatry. An idol is
what we love. We worship what we love and trust.
To worship an idol makes one a slave to the depraved ideas his idols represent, Gal. 4:8,9 What many
may not realize is the we begin to represent it. Thus, God would forbid it as a violation of why we are here
- to declare His glory and image. This is how men, “Turned the truth of God into a lie,” seen in Romans 1.
Proud people make themselves equal with God; covetous people make their money equal with God;
and whatever we esteem or love, fear or hope in, more than God, that ‘creature’ we make equal with
God, which is the highest affront imaginable to him who is God over all.