Set free from the grip of a false god

When I was a child, our mother did not teach us how to settle arguments. Instead, she distracted us to a more acceptable activity. While that sounds good, it had ramifications. For a long time, I tend to avoid unpleasant situations rather than taking appropriate measures to deal with them.

Mom meant well, but she also didn’t know herself what to do. Instead, she used her imagination. If something bad happened, she imagined it differently until her version of the event became something she could manage. She stopped doing this in her later years after I lovingly told her this made her susceptible to Satan’s lies. However, this became a subtle practice for me, a way of avoiding some difficulties in life. Instead of trusting Jesus with those things, I trusted my imagination and made it my god.

This reliance on myself as the answer to the struggles of life is idolatry. While not a wooden idol or one made of clay, it is nonetheless an idol. To this, God says:

“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty . . . ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other . . . I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together . . . (you) have no knowledge who carry about (your) idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.’” (Isaiah 45:18–25)

The Bible declares and demonstrates that God is God. There is no other. To worship or rely on anyone or anything else is not only foolish but idolatry and a grievous sin. Part of what I’m writing now is due to this New Testament statement by Jesus Christ:

“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:20–23)

All sin begins with evil thoughts, whether those thoughts are carried out or not. For me, the imagination of my mind in solving problems has ranged from shadowy to downright darkness, but regardless of how ‘normal’ it may seem to me or others, it became obvious that I am not trusting the Lord when I do that. He says “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)

The Lord also says to me that no matter how small or large the issues of life, they are to be met in faith, trusting Jesus for guidance, not leaning on my own understanding.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” (Proverbs 3:5–7)

The bottom line is to have no other gods before me, not just the obvious idols, but also not the idol of my own thoughts and abilities, trusting me instead of the One who is God; there is no other.

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9–11)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, there is no limit to Your realm. You are Lord of all things, all events, all people, everything. You have given me Your mind and I am to surrender to it, not trusting my own understanding or imagination. Some would protest that this is restrictive, but the deeper my knowledge of You and the more I yield all to You, the more I realize it is for freedom that You have set me free!

One of those gray areas . . .

This morning I was thinking about something I want to do, but had some doubts about whether God wants me to do it. It is one of those gray areas, not sin in the action, but perhaps in my motivation. My prayer was that He would show me from Scripture. My feelings and my ‘I wants’ can block His voice and when that happens, I want to hear what He has to say in black and white, with no confusion.

These verses are for today’s reading, verses whose application has not always been clear. However, Chambers clarifies them for me, and God answers my prayer.

“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Matthew 5:25–26)

Chambers says this instruction is based on a principle: Do what you know you must do, now, and do it quickly. It I don’t, there is a process that will eventually bring pain and distress. God’s laws are unalterable; there is no escape from them.

From this, I do not hear the Lord saying “Do what you want to do” but rather, “Do what I want you to do.” The same principle applies; if I don’t, there will be consequences. If I go my own way, I will regret it. If I obey the Lord, the results will please Him and be a blessing to me and others.

This passage is not about how others treat me, even though it refers to accusers. If the accuser is right and I insist on my rights, or having my way, or act in ways that displease the Lord Jesus Christ, I’m to bring myself to God’s judgment and let Him say yes or no to my situation. If I don’t, the problem will not go away.

Chamber’s lines that speak loudly are these: “God is determined to have His child as pure and clean and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He will prevent none of the working of His spirit. Our insistence in proving that we are right is nearly always an indication that there has been some point of disobedience. No wonder the Spirit so strongly urges to keep steadfastly in the light!”

My issue is not about settling differences with an accuser, yet the Holy Spirit reminds me of the reality of my spiritual accuser, the enemy who accuses me before God day and night.

“ . . . . Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:10–11)

Satan accusations are designed to ruin my faith and turn me from trusting God. This gives clarity. Will the thing I want to do be a reflection of pure faith? Or does it have an insistence in it that indicates either lack of faith or a point of disobedience or both?

If God wants me to do something, He will nudge me until I pay attention. If Satan wants me to do something, he will accomplish his purpose by lies and accusations. The only way to overcome him is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, by my declaration of faith in God, and by disregarding whatever I might want — even if it leads to my demise.

If I insist on my own way, my accuser will trip me up. If I do not love my own life or my own way then I will conquer this adversary, not by being reconciled to him, but because I have been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, and enabled to obey Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Images and imaginations

God revealed Himself in Words and in His Word made flesh. We don’t have any pictures of God and are forbidden to make images that represent Him. God knows the human heart; we are prone to put our faith in what we can see so images will be worshiped instead of Him.

The image could be made of wood or metal . . .  “A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”

This is “both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men.”

These “gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens” and “Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.” (Jeremiah 10:1–16)

The New Testament also speaks of idols, widening the scope from gods made of trees and metal to other images made by those who reject what God reveals about Himself in creation . . .  

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23)

An idol is something that is exchanged for God, a substitute relied upon for some benefit rather than seeking the blessing of the true God. I can easily see the folly of worshiping a carving, tree, or other actual image, but today’s devotional reminds me that those images begin in the imagination. That is, those who create them first have an idea of what they want their god to look like, and the carving is merely the result of their thoughts.

I’m convicted at this point for the idols of my own heart are not simple little statues, but mental imaginations that fill my thoughts. When I could be focused on God, I might be thinking mostly about family, work, and so on. It could be people, places, activities, anything that occupies my mind or fills my heart with pleasure, worry, plans, etc. I’ve been guilty of entire days, or at least most of the day thinking about something other than God. Does that make that ‘something’ an idol? It does if I am relying on my imagination to bless me in some way rather than turning to the Lord. This is important, for the results of idolatry are severe.

In Romans 1, the progression from rejecting the revelation of God to worshiping images ends up with God withdrawing His protective hand and letting those idolaters fall into sin . . . “since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:26–32)

This slide into sin is a logical progression for two reasons. First, without faith, no one can please God (Hebrews 11:6) and second, if God is not given first place as stated in the first of the Ten Commandments, then none of the other commandments can be obeyed. That is, replacing Him with any idol means a slide into disobedience in all areas of life.

Psalm 97:7 says, “Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, Who boast of idols. Worship Him, all you gods.” Idolatry is shameful and boasting of it is even worse. Instead, even the idols, living or lifeless carvings, real or imagined, need to bow before their Creator. How much more must I bow also and rely on Him alone. 

Creativity is more than imagination

Fresh home from our trip to Seoul, my biggest impression was the creativity that I saw. While Seoul is not like Paris or New York in the normal sense of being an art center, creativity is not just about painting and fashion. It is also about making good use of the resources at hand.

We did see some wonderful art (at the International Gallery and the small quilt show), their city design also stands out as good art with thousands of tall apartments clustered in the valleys between low mountains, and an astounding and efficient subway system that is also beautiful. City planners and designers show great creative skills.

Seoul must have an abundance of clay, since most of the city sidewalks are brick or ceramic tiles. The subway is entirely tiled. Their award-winning airport has no carpet; the floors are either tile or wood laminate. Many buildings are metal and glass. The effect is clean, crisp, even modern. They use their resources with wisdom.

Today’s devotional reading is about creativity. It says, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens; by His knowledge the depths were broken up, and clouds drop down the dew” (Proverbs 3:19-20).

When people say they don’t have the imagination for being creative, I wonder if that is the best word. Here it says that God used wisdom in creation. Wisdom makes me think that whatever God makes, it is not only beautiful but functional. Like a good writer, He wastes no words. Every part has a purpose in the grand scheme of what He has created.

We might not see it. I’ve looked at the color in a flower blossom and thought that God didn’t have to make it colored; everything could be grey. Yet He created insects, each with an attraction to different colors so each flower could be pollinated by its own species. Do we need sunsets, or cascading waterfalls? Science says so. Even the smallest animals, birds, insects, and microorganisms have their place in the world.

God is imaginative, but if wisdom is the foundation of creation for Him, surely a great deal of the art I create should be given more thought. It isn’t just that a quilt should be warm and comfortable on a bed to be useful, but wisdom also considers the design and the harmony of its structure. It should lift creativity above mere self-expression, give it deeper and more lasting meaning to both me and anyone who sees or uses what I create. Creativity at its purest should reflect the pattern and purposes of the Creator as He spoke the universe into existence.

Another lofty thought is that by wisdom God created me in His image. That suggests that I also have a purpose in His grand plan and a place in the world. These are challenging ideas. I certainly need to ask God for more wisdom (not more imagination) so my creative efforts best represent the His nature, wisdom, and glory. I also need His grace and power to live obediently and with wise understanding so that my life fulfills the purpose for which I was created.