Mom's Devotional Bible
How to Build an Idol
Additional Scripture Readings: Isaiah 44:9–20; Luke 18:18–30
We dislike the unknown, the undesired, the impossible. When we face infertility, unexpected singleness, unemployment, marital conflict or other kinds of suffering, we point faces full of question marks to heaven. When we don’t find answers to our perplexities, we may decide God isn’t worth it.
Unhappy with the God we’ve chosen to worship, we may create another. Discontent with God, we make money into our god. Dissatisfied with God, we fashion power into an idol. We replace God—and our gripe-filled relationship with him—with popularity, careers, ministry or even children and hope they’ll make us happier than he did. When we are disappointed with God and look elsewhere for what we want, we lay the foundation for idolatry.
How does an idol become an idol? By our choice. But what other choice is there? To immunize ourselves with praise for who God is and what he does: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).