Day 24

The deep needs of the heart are designed to be met by God Himself.

‘While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.’ (Acts 17:16)

G.K Chesterton famously said, ‘When we stop believing in God, we don’t believe in nothing – we believe in anything.’ If we disengage from the true God, we find a substitute to fill the gap in the human heart. This is why we create idols. Idols don’t have to be made of stone or wood. As God said to Ezekiel, ‘Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts’ (Ezekiel 14:3).

In Athens Paul was greatly distressed about the number of idols in the city. He pointed out one altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God’ (Acts 17:23). The most dangerous idols are the ones unknown to us. We are deceived into thinking they serve us, so in the pursuit of power, lust, control or money webecome increasingly entangled in a dangerous web that eventually locks us in to a position of complete submission. John Calvin wrote, ‘The human mind is a perpetual factory for idols.’

The only one who can fill the deep need in our heart is Christ. We were created with a capacity to know and enjoy God and that cannot be adequately substituted by anything else. Idolatry is still the biggest obstacle to our knowing and enjoying Him.

Are there idols in your life that you need to bring to Jesus?