Overcoming Idols in Life – A Difficult Journey

What comes to mind when you hear the word “idols”? Is it statues made out of gold? Is it a celebrity figure? Webster’s Dictionary defines idol as an object of extreme devotion, or a representation or a symbol of an object of worship, a false god. An idol is anything in your life that you put in a position that you rely on more than God. God has been taking me on a journey of revealing idols in my life. Here are some idols that He showed me I needed to overcome. I hope they help you in identifying if you have any idols in your life.

Coffee was an Idol

At one point in time, coffee was an addiction for me. I don’t mean, in a joking, trivial sort of way. I was addicted coffee, and I realized I needed to stop. The withdrawal was miserable! The caffeine headache a minimal part of it. I wanted coffee so badly that I would lay on the floor in my husband’s office whining about how severely I just needed a cup and couldn’t have one. After three days of excruciating desire, I began to sing praise music every time that overwhelming craving for a cup came over me. 

Idols of food, chocolate, shopping

A couple days later, I realized the intense desires had subsided. While resting one afternoon, I had an overwhelming desire for a cup of coffee again. This time, I was able to just say, “No, I’m not having a cup of coffee.” Next, I had an overwhelming desire for chocolate cake. I knew I didn’t need cake, and thought, “no, not that either.” Then the desire to go shopping came to me. As I laid there, I pondered these thoughts and desires and how they seemed to come so quickly one after the other.

I soon realized that when I was tired, stressed, and/or frustrated, these were the things I first turned to in order to “fill me back up.” I quickly turned to these things when I should have been spending more time with God, and allowing Him to fill me back up, instead.

After thinking about it, I realized two main reasons behind my motives. One, they were physical things that I felt would satisfy me quickly. Two, I had already had my quiet time with the Lord that day, so I thought my relationship with God was good. Unfortunately, when I turned to these things, it showed that I valued them more than I did God, and that’s what makes them an idol. Now, I can drink coffee again, and if I miss a cup one day, it’s a bummer, but it’s not a huge issue.

Job Status Idols

At one point in my life, my job was an idol. It was an idol for two reasons. My job helped me to feel important (status) and provided money. I hadn’t thought I was the type of person who needed status, but I realized that was exactly one of the reasons I liked my last job.

There was a point when I reported to our company’s CEO, and I enjoyed saying that to people. That’s also about the same time when we needed to decide whether I was going to quit my job to invest more time homeschooling our children, or send them to school. We decided our priority was for me to come home to pour into our family for a time. The thing is, God makes us unique, for a purpose, and we are important to Him. This, in turn, makes us important to this world. We all have a purpose for being here and need to discover what that is so we can add value to others. Being a corporate executive was not my purpose, just a part of my journey.

My Job Feeds My Family

I also relied on my job to provide an income to feed our family. I thought that I had to strive to achieve great heights in my career to be able to better provide for us. The thing that I realized, was the more money my corporate job provided, the more they owned my time. I had to travel when they needed me to travel, which was incredibly often during one of my pregnancies.

It was exhausting, but I couldn’t ever say no. At one point, they started monitoring to see if I needed to be put on bedrest. As much as I didn’t want that to happen, a tiny part of me wanted them to at least just say no more traveling, so I could get a break. I responded to emails at midnight, and on weekends. I remember having a vacation scheduled and needing to reschedule it because of a big meeting that came up. 

This job idol was not an easy one to overcome. Over a long process, God revealed to me that He alone is my provider. I was entrapped by my career, but if I wanted to be free, I needed to realize that my income was given to me because God provided that job. He was prompting me to leave corporate america and become a full-time mom to my kids. It was scary, because my job provided a majority of our income.

Money Can Also be an Idol

Over time, he continued to show us how money can control people’s thoughts and attitudes. Money was able to make people angry, worried, or stressed. He showed us that money is a tool that helps this world operate, but it doesn’t need to be what fills our thoughts or control our actions. We don’t have to toil and strive to have provision. As long as I stayed connected to God, and did what he prompted, He would continue to provide for us. 

“But seek first his kingdom an his righteousness, and all thee thins will be given to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

-Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

Health and Fitness Idols

I don’t have experience with this myself, but I’ve observed this on many occasions. For some people, health becomes their idol. They feel like they have to look a certain way, or eat only certain foods, or stay away from all “bad” foods. Maybe they pride themselves on always being the most healthy person they know. Maybe they have to get their workout in every day or else they feel like they failed. 

There is nothing wrong with being healthy and taking care of our bodies. In fact, the bible tells us that our “bodies are temples of the holy spirit…therefore honor God with your bodies.” The challenge comes when we put more devotion to our health routines than we do towards curating a heart for God. It comes when we put our food choices before our relationships. However, if there’s allergies involved, or a healing journey taking place, that’s a different story. But when we are living in a way that we are upholding strict “rules” on what goes in our bodies, or what workouts we have to do, more than what God wants us to do, it can become problematic. 

Once way one of my friends makes her workout not become an idol, is that her running time is her quiet, connecting time with the Lord. Sure she studies His word daily. However, during her workout is when she gets inner connection that triggers ideas and correction. It’s the time where she is able to develop that relationship with the Lord that He really wants for all of us. 

Idolize My Family

Another one is family. I have been guilty of feeling like I need to pour so much into my family that I neglect taking care of myself. This is especially true when I have babies that don’t sleep at night. I tend to try to live up to all the demands of every one else’s needs. When doing so, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time left for me to do something for myself. God has recently shown me how important it is to fill myself up first, so I have more to give to others. I’m a much more peaceful and patient mommy when I have taken care of myself and my own needs.

I’ve implemented a “quiet time” in our house during nap time. It’s a time for the kids to all do something quiet, on their own, so that the house stays semi-quiet while the baby sleeps. This is time for me to catch up on my own things, so I don’t have to wait until after kids are in bed to do things that take my focus. Many days that means that the older kids watch a movie or play video games while I catch a nap to recharge. This was especially true when my two year old was still waking every two hours – Praise God she’s finally starting to sleep through the night! I had to stop feeling guilty for needing a nap. 

Idols of Other people’s opinions

I mentioned this in my hope article, but I really had a challenge with other people’s opinions being an idol in my life. That was not an easy one for me to overcome, either. I really value the opinions of people I respect. Unfortunately, I had trouble saying no to people. I sometimes wouldn’t do what I knew God wanted me to do because I didn’t want to let anyone down. While it’s noble to be accountable to my word, I also needed to be accountable to my God.

Idols of Ministry or “Quiet-time”

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying with this one, but sometimes we can make our ministry or our “quiet-time with the Lord” an object of extreme devotion. Again, these are good things to do, but it’s about the heart behind it and whether or not it has a higher position than God in our hearts. 

Many people get involved in ministry to better the kingdom and to serve God. Over time, it’s easy to end up doing it because the people are counting on you and you don’t want to let them down. Sometimes, people just get burnt out and their heart isn’t in it anymore. The challenge is, if you are doing it for any reason other than out of love for God and the people you are serving, it is becoming something that needs to be re-evaluated.

Remember my coffee story at the beginning? When I realized that I was filling myself up with coffee instead of with God, I was still doing a daily “quiet-time” in the mornings with God. I was reading my bible and praying, and spending time with God. The challenge was I was making it a priority to start my day with my bible, instead of starting my day with God. My heart wasn’t in the right place on why it was a priority.

Time with the Lord Compared to Marriage

My bible teacher once told me, “Imagine for a minute that you only spent time talking to and getting to know your husband at the beginning of every day for about a half hour, and didn’t really see or talk to him the rest of the day. What kind of marriage would you have? Would you feel deeply connected to him? The same is true with time with the Lord. You should be talking to him all day every day, and spending extra focused time on him whenever you feel you should. That’s how a marriage works. Don’t be so focused on outwardly honoring him with rituals, but focus on your relationship.”

That analogy meant a lot to me. How would my relationship with my husband be if I only talked to him for 20 minutes a day first thing in the morning. Even if I only talked to him 20 minutes a day first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, I don’t think I’d feel very connected.  I like to touch base regularly with my husband throughout the day. I like to go on dates, and sit up and have long conversations sorting out things of life.

Quiet Time is Not Wrong

Again, having quiet time is not bad or wrong. I still make it a priority to set aside a specified time every day focused on God, reading scripture, and journaling. It’s just that I’m not doing it because I’m supposed to or to mark it off my to-do list.  I’m doing it because I want to connect more to the Lord. I also talk to him throughout the day, as well, but if I miss my focused, connecting time, I don’t feel as filled up.

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”

-1 John 5:21 (HCSB)

How about you? Do you resonate with any of these idols? What idols have you overcome?