Too Many Gods

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image.”(Exodus 20:3-4)

Idolatry isn’t just one of many sins; rather, it’s the one great sin that all others come from. It’s not an issue; it is the issue. There may be a hundred million different symptoms, but the issue is always idolatry. If you start scratching at whatever struggle you’re dealing with, eventually you’ll find that underneath it is a false god. And until that God is dethroned, you will not have victory.
God isn’t interested in competing against others or being first among many. He will not be part of any hierarchy. God declines to sit atop an organizational flowchart. He IS the organization. He is not interested in being president of the board. He IS the board. He is God, and your life will not work until everyone else sitting around the table in the boardroom of your heart has been fired. There can be no partial gods, no honorary gods, no interim gods, no assistants to the regional gods.
God designed and created the universe to work this way, and He’s the sole owner and operator of it. So only the one true God knows how it works. He is the only God who can help us, direct us, satisfy us, and save us.
By the time we read Exodus 20, we see that God has had it with imitation and substitute gods. He tells Israel to break up the pantheon (“many gods”). All other God activity is canceled. He makes sure the people understand that He is the one and only. He is the Lord God!
You may be thinking this is not a problem today. But my guess is that our list of god’s is longer than ever. We may not have the god of commerce, the god of agriculture, the god of sex, or the god of the hunt. But we do have portfolios, automobiles, adult entertainment, and sports. Simply calling them by different names doesn’t change who they are.
When someone or something, good or bad, replaces the Lord God in the position of glory in your life, then it has by definition become a god.

DENYING TODAY
Just this week, what drew your attention the most? What does your checkbook or calendar or to-do list reveal about your priorities? What people or things keep sneaking into your mind and blocking your view of God? Be honest here; see if you can’t identify by name some of the gods who have set up thrones in your life.