Funny thing about marriage…it needs devoted exclusivity to survive. Marriage can survive all types of problems and upheavals, but it cannot survive if a spouse continues to share his or hear devotion with someone else.
Funny thing about a relationship with God…it needs devoted exclusivity to survive. A relationship with God can survive all types of problems and upheavals, but it cannot survive if a person continues to share their devotion with anyone or anything else.
This is what Deuteronomy chapter 13 is telling us. God must come first! He alone can be God in our life. He alone deserves our highest devotion; (even over our spouse and our children.) He will not share the throne of our life with anything or anyone else. And any attempt to get Him to do so will cause us to forfeit the closeness, intimacy, and trust we had with Him.
We allow so many things to fragment our devotion to God. But allowing anything else to hold the place that only God should hold in our life is an act of betrayal and infidelity on our part, and will create a serious breach in our relationship with God. Anything other than devoted exclusivity to God hurts our relationship with God.
May we examine our life and ask, “Are there any other gods in my life?”
In answering the question “Are there any other gods in my life?” I wonder if I am the other god. It hurts to think about that. I’m so caught up in a lack of trust with God. Does that distrust represent a “god”? Is there a selfishness attached to this? Anger?
Anything you tend to trust more than God winds up being an idol…whether that’s a person, or a thing, or an idea, a belief, etc. They can be subtle and they can be everywhere.