There are so many idols in our culture, just like there were then, even if ours aren’t made of gold or standing on an altar before us. And yet are we just as troubled by the things that people (including ourselves) put in front of God, as sources of security, worth, value, comfort, etc.? One that can be especially sneaky is putting ourselves before God — an idol that I believe our culture is especially exalting right now.
This idol is one that has been particularly difficult to dethrone in my life. The amount of time that I can spend in a day thinking about what I want, what my rights are, what I can do, or what I deserve is something I don’t want to count up. Of course, God has trusted each of us to be responsible for ourselves and to be aware of what is going on inside us. But this isn’t in order to feel like I am something or like I can fully depend on myself or like I’m better or worse than somebody else.
The message of the Gospel completely contradicts this overly independent mindset — the truth is that we are all handcrafted by God, incredibly loved by Him, and yet because of our sin, none of us deserve anything but eternal separation from Him. We are created to be in close communion with God in a way that depends on Him wholly and not on ourselves. But we have this tendency to rely on ourselves in order to be justified and have our needs met instead of by the God of the universe, who has everything we need. We can trust God for everything that we need physically, spiritually, and emotionally. For “in him, we live and move and exist.”
As we focus on Him becoming greater in our lives, we automatically become less, not less as a person or of worth, but less of the idol that has to be worshiped and defended and upheld above all. We can trust that God made us for His glory and our good. We’re not going to miss out on anything when we follow Him. He’s not going to tear down who He made us to be as we trust Him first.