Recently, in Paul Tripp’s excellent new devotional Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life, he wrote about idols. When we hear someone mention an idol, we might think of people bowing down before something made of wood, metal or stone. Tripp tells us that the sad truth is that many of us who would never bow before a religious idol have idolatry in our lives. He writes that an idol functions as a God-replacement in our hearts, and that sometimes good things become idols. Things in our lives that were once blessings rise in level of importance in our hearts until they control our thoughts, desires, choices, actions, and words. A desire for even a good thing will become a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing.   Just as Eve saw the forbidden tree was “good for food,” a “delight to the eyes,” and “to be desired to make one wise” (Gen. 3:6), so we are allured by idols—good things that become ultimate things.
Do you have any idols in your life? Think of your spouse or children. Tripp writes that someone’s love can become a life-shaping idol. It’s not wrong to want to be loved of course, but this desire must not be allowed to capture the place in your heart that only God should have. Tripp tells us that anything in creation can function in your heart and life as a God-replacement. Continue reading →