Subtle Idols

***** Taken from a friend's blog *********

Can Christians have idols? What is the cause of depression? Could it be idolatry? Read my next series to challenge you to examine our wonderful God and His sufficiency.

My ministry is mainly to the Non-Christian, but Christians are sometimes depressed too.This next "series" will be in Subtle Idols.

Did you know that depression could be the result of idolatry? There may be a very tiny number of people that have a "chemical imbalance," but I doubt that anybody reading this falls into that category. If there are any at all, there are very few in the world.

I have fought depression from time to time, even recently. My thought processes go something like this: "Father, I serve the Body of Christ the best I can. I have sacrificed in so many ways. I work so many hours. I go beyond the 'call of duty' and I give and I give and I give. I would think that I should at least be able to pay the rent on time. I would think that You would let us have a life without the struggle of financial burden. After all, I serve many times without any remuneration at all. Sometimes I see people leave our office with not only having received counsel, but I give them Bibles, articles, books, tapes and tape players. Many times I do not receive a dime for what I have done for Your people."

Isn't that sick? I would think Father would want to slap me upside my head. Did you catch all the times the word "I" appears in that sickening self-pitying display of selfish self-centeredness? You would think it was all about ME. I was actually accusing God of not being as good to me as He ought to be. You would think I had been listening to Satan in the garden. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." I was eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I had double vision, I doubted God's goodness in the situation. Will my prayer be answered? Not according to James, "For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

Here's how it usually works:

* I ENVY the way it "should" be. It should be "other" than it is according to my concept of GOOD AND EVIL.
* I am filled with SELF PITY. I think it is not fair. I think it ought to be as I see it should be. I see the way it is as being evil.
* I become ANGRY. They/it/she/he ought to be better to me. After all, they/it/he/she is wrong and I am right. I even have Scripture to prove it.
* I become DEPRESSED. I don't know why I feel this way. Maybe I need to go to the doctor and get something. Maybe I have a chemical imbalance.
* If I don't do something about the DEPRESSION (preferably by setting my mind on Him instead of my ideal) it turns into SELF-DESTRUCTION. Not that I want to commit suicide, but I start making stupid decisions that are not in anybody's best interest because of my state of mind and being out of fellowship with God, or "minding the things of the flesh."

With my mind on MY IDEAL, I begin to cascade down into the blackest of holes: self-destructive behavior. Why? It is because of my IDOLATRY. How can it be called idolatry? Because I was thinking my ideal would be better than the way God has it. I may even have based my ideal on the Bible. The bottom line is: MY IDEAL was not coming to pass so I was going to be upset about it and take the slide downward.

Now I wasn't going to be so bold as to actually say this to God. No. I was angry and depressed about the way it was, deceiving myself that I was angry at things being as they are; but I was actually angry with God. I may even have been so upset as to take it out on my visible wife (by having a negative response to any thing she has to say or do) because I am actually angry with my invisible God. When we are not focused on Him, by faith, and seeing His beautiful Sovereign love for us, we tend to be at odds with everyone with whom we have to do in the visible realm, especially those closest to us.

Spurgeon said, "Often depression of spirit and great misery of soul are removed as soon as we quit our idols and bow ourselves in obedience before the living God."

This double vision, or seeing evil brings darkness into our soul that will manifest itself through our mouths and in our moods. "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The way we "see" things has a profound effect on our mental attitude and our mental health.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." As I have mentioned before, the word "pure" in the original Greek means "unmixed." Mixed would mean "unstable" or "double" or "evil" or "good and evil" and not seeing God in the situation. And, even as Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and were immediately "afraid," so we, when we see life based on our perception of good and evil, will also be afraid. We are at that time, in a sense, without God, not seeing God in it.

So, as I look at my situation and determine in my perception of good and evil that this is not as good as it would be if I were God, I have made my IDEAL an IDOL. It is subtle, isn't it? I would never think that I would have an idol in my life. I used to wonder why the New Testament has verses about idols. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." But I see that an idol can be what I call my ideal. I see that living my life toward what I perceive is an ideal can actually be serving an idol.

"Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?" I would never bow down to a graven image, but has my imagination carved out a perfection that I bow down to and worship? Do my plans and what I think "should be" turn out to be idolatry? Do I have a SUBTLE IDOL?

As a Christian, the Spirit of the Living God is in me. "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Either my God is the true God and He works "all things together for (my) good" and "His purpose" or I am serving a false god, the god of my ideal, which may be myself and my concepts of good and evil.

I am not calling you to examine yourself. I am calling you to examine your God. Do you truly serve God or what you have carved out as your ideal? There are at least two ways to commit idolatry: To serve a false god or to serve the true God in a false way. I can find myself praying for God to bless MY plans instead of seeking HIS will. I can be trying to bring His shore to my boat instead of bringing my boat to His shore. Our praying correctly will be aligning ourselves with Him instead of trying to align Him with our plans or our ideal, which subtly becomes OUR IDOL.