Idolatry is something God hates because it replaces God in the person’s life. So the first commandment He gives, God says, “I am the Lord your God, thou shall have no other graven image besides me.” God is saying, “I am a jealous God.” Beloved, idolatry brings you into contention with our Father. Anything we sacrifice our money, time and commitment to, more than we do for God, becomes our idol.

“The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” 1 Thessalonians 1:8‭-‬9 #Bible

I identified that my mobile phone was becoming an idol. At a point, the first thing I did when I woke up was to go online, to Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp and IG to see if I had any messages, or notifications, or who liked my pictures or who was online so that I could chat with them. It took away the time to pray, the time to study God’s word. I spent more money on data than I could give to help the poor and needy or as offering. 

At a time last year when I was very inconsistent with the Devotional and especially with my personal relationship with God, it was because of my devotion to my phone. Either that or I’d spent the bulk of the night on twitter and wake up late, rush off to bath and off to work, after work basketball. Little to No time for God. For some of us, the very blessing of a job, a car, a good beloved, the ability to study and comprehend has replaced our time for God.

I have a dear friend, when she goes to school she doesn’t go to Church, always studying. She replaces her academics with God… studying saah. So on a Sunday morning she’s tired, so like God did, she’s resting on the Sabbath. Heih!! Be careful! Never replace anything with Him, because to get your attention, He will destroy it or cause you to lose it. Have you heard of a girlfriend who sells or destroys a guy’s gaming console so he can have time for her? Or a guy who makes a scene because his lady is talking to someone else? Yeah, that inherent jealous nature is a nature we have because God has it. We were made in His image.

And some of us it is our boyfriends/ girlfriends that have replaced God in our lives. We call them or FaceTime them first thing in the morning; we can spend an entire day with them and spend our money on them. But we will go to church late and if the service drags on a bit or it delays, then we start looking at our watches and grumbling. When it’s offering time you look for the tattered 2 cedis or 1 cedi to give to God. We’re practicing modern day idol worship but we don’t realise it. 

But I see some young people being smart and changing from today. Grace can help you break those addictions. It is possible: “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Pray right now, ask the Holy Spirit to help you: “Lord, rid me of everything that takes first place in my life other than you, help me develop a personal intimate relationship with you, Amen.”

(To be continued…) Stay Blessed and kindly share with friends and family. 

#AloneWithGodDevotional 

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