Scripture:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” – 1 John 2:15-17

Reading:

The definition of idol from the dictionary is “an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.” But the word “idol” can encompass even more than that. Idols can take all shapes and forms. For some of us, money is an idol. Maybe for you, it is food. For our crowd, baseball could be an idol.

So many of us mistakenly take delight in things of the world over taking delight in God. God is the creator of all the things that you may make an idol of. He deserves the praise for creating things that you love and care about. God created money not to be worshipped, but to be used. God created food to enjoy, but definitely not to idolize. God created baseball through people to enjoy in community and for competition, but not to dwell on with our hearts unhealthily.

How can we refocus our desires in a healthy way that doesn’t make things our idols? The Bible says our delight and love should be with God over everything else. Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This doesn’t mean that when you delight in God he will give you a bunch of money. When we delight in God, we begin to love what God loves. He shifts our desires into godly desires. When you delight in God, God will give you a better relationship with him because that will be the desire of your heart. God will give you a church community because you will desire that, and godly relationships are what he wants for you. The list goes on.

Our delight in “things” over God isn’t good. Those things will fade away into eternity. God is in the business of giving you things that will last eternally when you delight in him. “Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands” (Psalm 112:1). God’s ways are better. And he knows what will give you the greatest joy.

Questions:

What are things that you take delight in?

What are things that God desires you to have when you take delight in him?