Growing up I was a baseball junkie, my whole family was as I recall.  Along with that came a whole bunch of superstitions I would have, if I had a great game.  I would wear fake gold chains (like the pros I admired), make my stirrups very long, and wear my hat a certain way.  As long as I was playing well, I never switched up anything so I could “give praise” to the way I did things.  My superstitions had become my idols!

Though such things sound ridiculous now, it came down to not knowing Christ and having to have something or someone to praise, though I created the superstition!  Yet we still create “superstitions” in our adult life, that we link to our favor and success, and not the God who is gracious in spite of our foolishness!  So whenever we attribute our savvy or our intelligence in how things came together, we “carry the good news to our idols”, and not the glory and honor of God! (James 1:!7)

Sadly, what this does for the Christian is rob God of what is due to Him, which is all the glory and praise for what He has done!  Even if the move we made was shrewd and brilliant, or we worked very hard for a great result, to not roll all that praise and glory up to God is idolatry! (Deuteronomy 8:18)

The fight against idolatry is constant, because our sinful desire is for glory and praise from others, rooted in self worship (Romans 2:29).  Like the Philistines who created their idols, they can ultimately accredit themselves with the victory and boast against God.  But true worship will always keep us mindful to give God glory.  Even if we find ourselves “successful” and praised, we shouldn’t stop there, otherwise humility to glorify Christ is impossible…

In His Love, Ld