Why God Shouldn't Be Your Top Priority
3am rolled around and found a dear friend and I painting, drinking tea, talking, and trying to ignore the time.
Out of the blue my friend says, "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I believe..." A little later on she divulged a jewel of wisdom I won't soon forget:
"People talk about God being their 'top priority' or 'first in their life' when in reality He should be the center of everything we do; the center of our life. We live our lives well because everything flows from Him...or at least it should."
Needless to say, after that conversation starter, 5am rolled around and found us still painting, still drinking tea, still talking, and still trying to ignore the time.
As I've reflected on that jewel of wisdom over the past few weeks, I realized that one of the implications of moving God from the top of our priorities to the center of our life is that idolizing other things becomes extremely difficult.
Here is how life goes when God is merely our top priority:
1. the rest of life becomes a distraction
2. we feel guilty about not "spending enough quiet time with Him"
3. our relationships/responsibilities/dreams suffer because we can't balance God-time with life-time
4. we idolize things when our priorities become eskew and God gets knocked off the top spot
Overall, we constantly feel pulled in two seemingly different directions and guilty about it.
Here is how life goes when God is the center of our life:
1. the rest of life IS our communion with God
EXAMPLES: - where we see Him: can we see His common grace as we watch a child share with another?
- where we become more like Him: how do we respond to the tailgater? If we respond without anger and with mercy, there is communion with God as we witness His Spirit working in us.
- where we share our hearts with Him: do we take advantage of the 24 hour personal access He grants us? We can thank Him immediately for every speck of beauty in life and we don't HAVE to wait for quiet time.
2. we feel at PEACE having let Him penetrate our whole world and being
3. our relationships/responsibilities/dreams FLOURISH because God, through His Spirit in us, molds them into what they need to be
4. we view things as gifts and develop a thankful heart--no idols in sight.
Overall, we constantly feel pulled into God's heart and at peace about it.
Definition of idolizing: perverting the created order so that things, people, or dreams become more than they were created to be; when things, people, or dreams cease to become gifts and wrongfully become masters thus taking the place of God in our minds and hearts.
Idols become very hard to have when God is at the center because God is God and things are things. We can be confident that God is at the center of our lives when we view God as God and we view things, people, and dreams as treasures which we are free to embrace as blessings; not competition for our worship.
Yet, because we are sinful, we don't always see God as God and we fall into idolizing things constantly.
Exodus 32:20, "Then he [Moses] took the calf which they [the Israelites] had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it into powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it."
Wait...what...he made them drink it? Ew. That part of the Golden Calf story always seemed super out of place. "Probably just a weird Old Testament custom or something..." But it is actually so central to how we are to treat idols.
When we realize that we are idolizing something, the Spirit within us should spur us to destroy that idol and put God back where He should be in our life. However, often we go about destroying these idols all wrong.
In Exodus 32:20, Moses gives the "how-to" on destroying idols...
1. Moses utterly destroyed the gold with fire
2. Moses scattered the gold on the water symbolizing the gold's return to its rightful place as an element of the earth
3. Moses made the Israelites realize the folly of their actions through a perversion of nature: gold is not meant to be drunk just like it was never meant to become an idol. Moses showed them the damage that making gold an idol would do--both spiritually and physically.
Truly destroying an idol entails BOTH running from its snares and actively putting it back in its place in the universe; treating it how God designed it to be treated. Instead we often take shortcuts...
1. we "take a break" to get right with God
2. we ignore the idol's true place in the universe (because we think ignoring it will help) and therefore frustrate our efforts to see God's place clearly
3. we don't think through or examine the consequences of idolization
We end up back on FaceBook after two weeks of "fasting," we pull all nighters writing a paper because the "GPA is oh so fragile" (and so is the reputation), and keeping that reign on materialism? "Don't worry, these heels were on SALE #frugality #modestishottest #foreverJesus #Christianhashtagsfordayz."
Let's be real here. Real and honest. These three things have been consistent idols in my life that I must continually destroy: relationships, popularity, and exercise. I hope they are wide spread enough to be relatable. Here is the battle strategy...
Relationships:
I'd say its pretty hard to identify when we're idolizing a significant other. But I've come to realize something on this battleground...when we think we're idolzing a significant other...we're probably not. Here is why I think I can say that. But examine your own heart:
Nothing can be fixed or changed in a relationship where two people are invested as little as they can be. Sounds like common sense right? Ya gotta work as a team and punch those temptations and difficulties in the face!! Everyone believes this until one person believes that they are idolizing the other...the couple moves into panic mode and ceases to work as a team because one person is now afraid of how close they are to an "idol." But what this needs is not a "break" or even a "break-up," but Spirit-filled intervention.
To stop idolizing your significant other, start loving them differently. Not by ignoring them.
Sample conversation: "Love, I think I'm idolizing you. I'm expecting you to do too much for me and I keep getting disappointed in you for not totally satisfying me when that isn't even your job in the first place. To fix this, I want to start treating you as a gift from God instead of God Himself. I want to be more loving towards you, more joyful when I'm with you, to handle us with a peaceful spirit, be more patient, do more kind things for you, be as good to you as I can be, stay faithful, be extra gentle, and extra self-controlled. I know that when I treat you how God designed me to treat you, it will not only help me see God as God, but it will help our relationship flourish. Will you help me?"
Does it make a little more sense now to say that if we think we're idolzing our significant other we might not be? Its because treating people with the utmost love and respect is how we keep them in their place and God in His. Not by being distant and hoping something changes.
Popularity:
New place, new friends, but zero status. Feels pretty stinky doesn't it?
Instilling a belief in our hearts that others somehow have to be our fangirls, give us praise, affirmation, and constant support makes for a disappointing life. God also becomes a meanie because He has made us wrongfully lonely...hmpf.
To stop idolizing our place in everyone's eyes, start remembering why God gave us community. Not by becoming a shut in.
Speak uplifting words to everyone around you to move from wanting to be the focus to wanting to be a servant and a lover. When we remember our God-given role as servants and lovers, suddenly others become things for us to bless instead of our security blankets. And God again becomes who we delight in and our source of joy.
Exercise:
Hot bod=bragging rights=overall superiority. We feel so sorry for those gluttons, busy-bodies, and idlers don't we?
When self-care becomes self-created-stability, others become objects of pity and distraction rather than joy and encouragement and God becomes someone we have to impress.
To stop idolizing superb health habits, start remembering the place that taking care of your body holds. Not by never working out again. The body is a good gift from God used to glorify Him!
But when "care of the temple" affects your attitude towards others and God...not cool.
When we treat exercise as a means to an end, missing a day won't make us feel fat or lazy or like we are letting God down; an ice cream outing with pals is no longer a struggle because you can actually enjoy fellowship rather than worrying about the ice cream's calorie count.
When we recognize the idol, repent, and begin destroying it by treating it how God designed us to treat it (modeling after Moses), God gets back on His throne both in our hearts and minds. We are so much happier because we can cherish the wonderous gifts He grants and worship Him to the fullest as we overflow with joy and thanks.