Today the Lord opened my eyes to a very big idol in my life as I was reading Ezekiel 7-8. In chapter 7 Ezekiel receives a word from the Lord that the end has come upon Israel and the Lord will judge the Israelites for their conduct and detestable practices. Chapter 8 shows us some examples of these detestable practices, idolatry in the sanctuary, idolatry among the elders, and men and women worshipping creation. The Lord is super angry about all the idols and idol worship in Israel and it is clearly a big deal to Him. What He says in verse 17 surprised me,
"He said to me, 'Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger?'"
See, if it were me, I'd be way more concerned about the violence than the idol worship. But since I've been sitting here thinking about it, I may be understanding what He meant. If I'm worshipping something then my heart is focused on that object and not on God. And my actions will be evidence of that. So it's a heart issue. Violence stems from idolatry so the root cause, the thing that needs to change, is the idol worship and my actions will be affected as a result. Makes sense right?
So I started writing down some things that I spend too much time doing or thinking about and that's when the Father began to reveal a big idol in my life. Basically I'm among the thousands of people who care wwwaaaayyyy too much what people think of me. I'm so focused on wondering how I'm being perceived by others that I forget to ask God how He perceives me. Which brings me to another "enlightenment" since camp, but I'll save that for another blog.
