The Great Lie about "Idols"

There is an idea that has slipped into the heart of man. It says that if you love anything other than God with all your heart, you're making an "idol" of that thing. There is so much wrong with that idea that I don't know where to begin. So often, people feel like they have to "give up" everything and crush every desire of their heart, counting all that they yearn for as rubbish, in order to follow Jesus and prioritize God. That idea couldn't be more false and harmful. I'd like to submit to you the idea that God is actually the one who put desires and yearnings in your heart to begin with, and He has no desire for you to throw them out the window. Prioritizing God does NOT mean minimizing or degrading your wants. You are not making idols out of your passions by valuing them! God created things in this life for you to ENJOY, and it's not selfish of you to embrace the beautiful pleasures He's given you. Because God loves you, He implanted desires in your heart, mind, body, and soul that are designed to bring you fullness of joy. Not to mention the fact that desires of your heart are often doorways that can be used to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. Your desires and passions often benefit other people as much as they benefit you. So denying your desires not only prevents you from experiencing joy, but it also often prevents other people from receiving a blessing. Yet we do it anyway. We continuously undermine the value of our desires and restrain our wants, simply because we believe we're making an idol of them. We believe that we aren't "putting God first" if we embrace our desires and love what He designed.

Don't misunderstand me. Our relationship with God is absolutely our first priority! What I'm saying is that, as we grow our relationship with God, we should actually also get closer to the desires of our heart! Not further away from them. Think of it like a triangle, with God at the peak, you at one corner, and your desires at the remaining corner.

As you grow closer to God, the desires of your heart move along with you and the space between you and your desires gets smaller and smaller as you move closer to Jesus. Did you catch that? Moving toward God actually lessens the distance between you and the desires of your heart! You become closer to them! People think that life is one big cross-roads, where you have to choose to follow either Jesus or the desires of your heart. That is not the case. It's actually quite the opposite. The path that Jesus walks with you has the desires of your heart littered all along its highway! Yet we rarely stop and pick them up because we think that Jesus would be offended. Let me ask you a question. What if Jesus actually loves it when His children stop to pick up the pleasures He's set in their path? What if embracing your desires doesn't equal idolizing them? The truth is that as we walk the path of life beside Jesus, He's puzzled at why we don't pick up the pleasures God puts in our path along the way. If you showered your child with gifts, how would you feel if your child tossed the gifts aside and said, "I don't want this because it might become an idol in my heart against you." In much the same way, Heaven sheds a tear every time a child of God passes up a delight, thinking that it's an idol. 

I'll end with this. Jimmy Needham has a song called "Clear The Stage." The Bridge of the Song says: "Anything I put before my God is an idol. Anything I want with all my heart is an idol. Anything I can't stop thinking of, is an idol. Anything that I give all my love, is an idol." The first part is accurate. We shouldn't put something before God. But every word after that breaks God's heart. We should absolutely give all our love and effort to relationships, family, fellowship, people, intimacy, kindness, and many other things. Jesus doesn't just want to be priority #1. He wants to be the giver of all the priorities you embrace. Just as you want to please God, He wants to please you. Don't deny Him the privilege of seeing your eyes light up as you unwrap the beautiful pleasures He's designed for you.