In Exodus God tells the people of Israel that they are not to have any idols or Gods besides Him. This was a foreign concept to them, since they were coming from Egypt a land of many idols. They thought that they could have one more god to add to their list, and continue to be “blessed” by all of these gods. Well the God who delivered them was not too hot on that idea, and let them know that He is a jealous god, and will not allow his followers to have any other gods.

Well since then God has not changed his opinion of this commandment, or of Himself. If He hasn’t changed, why do we in many cases ignore this commandment. You are probably thinking I don’t have any gold cows around my house, or a shrine built to the god of things that grow. Look again. You may not have these idols, but there is more to an idol than a gold cow. Idols are more than your money, family, house or job. It can be anything that keeps you from serving God.

I recently identified one of those idols in my life. Running. Can you believe it? An activity as an idol. I am not even that fast, nor can I run that far, but I let it get in the way of doing what we as Christians are called to do. Serve God and serve and love others. Instead of scheduling my day around what God wanted me to do, I was scheduling everything around when my next run would be. Then it happened, a knee injury. Slowed me down, and I had to do something other than run. At that time it hit me, well after several days of feeling sorry for myself it hit me. God is more important than running. Obvious, eh? Is it really? Look at your priorities? Is God first? If not, then everything ahead of Him is an idol. It is more important than God.

Matthew 4:10 says, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Not a lot of loopholes there.

So, how do we remove these idols. Idols that many of us do not think we have? Slow down, and pray to God. Ask Him to show you your idols, and to help you remove those idols so that He is the only God in your life. It is not easy, but it will make an eternal difference.