Mama often said things like...
“Finish everything on your plate before dessert.”
“No snacking before lunch.”
“Don’t eat junk food for breakfast.”
“Choose healthy snacks.”
Why? Because she knew that if our stomachs were always full of foods lacking the nourishment our bodies crave, we would not feel a healthy and necessary hunger for foods that offer what we truly need.
Our spirituality can be described as a type of hunger as well. If we fill the emptiness of our souls with anything not designed to nourish our deepest cravings and needs, we will find ourselves suffering the consequences of spiritual malnutrition: wondering why we still feel empty, confused, lost, and discontent when our plates appear full of so many good things.
This is because there is only one thing that deeply nourishes the soul and offers a satisfying, “my cup overflows” kind of satiation. It is a relationship with God. And everything we truly need to thrive (including healthy food), flows from the wealth of His heart, and His all-knowing goodness. (James 1:17; Matthew 4:4; Matthew 6:33)
The Bible refers to replacements for this divine union between God and man as idols – the junk food to our souls. Idols can make us feel full and temporarily satisfied, but still render us malnourished and starving for something more.
And absolutely anything can become an idol.
Good things and bad things.
God’s creations and human creations.
Human thoughts and theological philosophies.
Anything – from worries and fears to the good things we do for God can become obsessive drives that douse the natural longing of our souls to abide deeply in intimate connection with Him.
Idols pose as solutions to our needs for safety, comfort, assurance, stability, healing, and satisfaction. But they are just empty calories cleverly disguised in appealing packages. In return for our devotion and commitment, they swindle us out of every truly protective, comforting, stabilizing, assuring, healing, and richly satisfying blessing God skillfully fashioned to fulfill every need He placed in the heart of man. Jonah 2:8 reminds us that "Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies." (NLT)
When Scripture admonishes us to “keep away from anything that might take God’s place in our hearts,” (1 John 5:21) it is not imposing a prohibition on anything that even remotely feels good. Rather, it is calling us to consider that the earthly things we turn to may not be what our hearts are actually craving – nourishing treasures such as the peace, hope, freedom, joy, purpose, and abundant life only intimacy with God provides.
The following two quotes (also from moms) can serve as helpful guidelines for determining whether anything in our lives has become an idol that will leave us empty and unsatisfied …
“Whatever occupies your mind the most becomes your god” Sarah Young.
“Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things…that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself” Susanna Wesley.
So you will be my people, and I will be your God. You shall have no other gods before me. Jeremiah 30:22 & Exodus 20:3 (NIV)