In 2022, God worked on me good concerning what an idol was in my life. For the majority of 2022 I was traveling, acquiring possessions, eating whatever was good to my belly and taking in scenery that was pleasing to the eye. God was only in the mix as I thanked him for these things I had to do and had bought. Prayers over food and prayers for safe travels were theme of the bulk of the year. I can remember one trip looking for a bible in the hotel drawer and finding one happily. I was going to judge the times of the world by if the bible was even installed in a hotel room anymore as it used to be when I grew up.

Later in the fall of the year as God showed me the error in the way I had been living the first 2 seasons of the year, I reflected on my thought of judging the hotels for changing their bible policies. I thought into my actions and how I didn’t bring my bible from home, how I was at first thought going to judge an establishment to promote the God I love before I reflected on me leaving my bible home. Matthew 7:5 came to mind- You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. KJV

As God revealed to me what an idol was in its smallest form, I began to examine my life and how I wanted to proceed. I asked God for several days – show me Lord, show me what I have been praising over you, loving over you, meditating on over you, choosing over you. God began revealing items I had purchased, items I had coveted and held in my closet- tags still on, items I had purchased from thrift stores that I didn’t ask God if I should get – as I usually would do. I began removing these items out of my home as God told me how. Some of the items went to the trash, some went to donate, others were destroyed. At the end of removing the physical items from my home, I felt a space, not just a physical space opening, but a place in my heart opening back up, a place where obedience was now growing.

Listening to God felt so good, getting rid of the tangible items wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be and I thanked God for his direction and the ease of letting go, this time. I say this time because I have used shopping and acquiring as a tool of self love in the past. Shopping when I felt sad, acquiring to fulfill spaces inside of me that were in need, passing time scrolling on the internet shopping for things I didn’t need to take my mind off of my troubles. As I came to this realization again, God began to show me another idol in my life. The idol of self.

God showed me that the idol of self was one that was most prevalent today and very hard to detect. From selfies on your phone to altering photos to get a certain look, filters to change your appearance and hours spent on the editing and posting online. Vanity is a large idol in most of our lives. God had prescribed me Ecclesiastes several times before in my life to read and reread. Culminating to the very fall day that God showed me the mirror and all of my studies seamed, forming an understanding I only held in pieces before.

When you are in hurt, you want to feel good, when you feel denied you want to be accepted, when love is rejected you seek to fil up with something that you love. Todays society is teaching us it’s acceptable to love yourself as you are and showing us that being who we are can be altered to be who we really think we want to be. These standards can be based on computer generated looks or even others altered or natural images. God sat me down and let me see the error in my ways and how even though I had the most positive body image of myself in my life, I was still falling short of applying the wisdom God had let grow in me. I went through my phone, took away duplicate photos, filtered photos, photos that reflected versions of me that I had grown past. I went through my social media page and cleaned up vanity posts and self serving posts, posts that didn’t translate what I felt was God speaking through me. I didn’t clean everything but what I could I did. This process was a good month long, I didn’t rush to do any of this but I didn’t hesitate either. When I was done, I felt relief, not that I was erasing who I used to be, but I was refining who I was now, deleting the posts and pictures of old let me reflect on my reasoning in the past and reminded me where I didn’t want to go back to.

There are times in our life and for me I try to make it daily, that I look at what God has brought me through and where God has me today. I reflected on Exodus 20:3 heavy during this period in my life. I thought of how I put my feelings and emotions in front of God and how to correct that behavior. God had already given me the word, I wasn’t reading it, and when I was reading it, sometimes I would look at it from a vain standpoint believing that I was alright how I was.

I am so thankful to the Lord for the present day he has given me. I pray that we all be thankful for our present day, for our present image that was created by God in perfection. I pray that we put God first in our choice of acquiring be it, a house, cars, clothes, a new app, a friend, a partner. I pray that we apply the words of God that feed us and fill us with nourishment for our souls. I pray that we have no idols before God and if we do, we ask God to reveal them. I pray that we understand that we are sinners and we need the Lord in every aspect of our lives. I pray our hearts be softened to his word and we be led by his Holy Spirit.

God revealed several ways I was putting life’s aspects over him, I will continue this series as he showed me that people can be idols and even our own plans can turn into an idol. Please join me in this discovery.

Have you had an experience with God showing you idols in your life? What bible verses helped you in your journey of identifying your idols? Leave a comment below.