Do you have a hard time being thankful? I do. It is one of
those commands that Jesus gave His followers that seems so easy, but can be
very difficult. I can pause and think of many things I am thankful for, but the
attitude of gratitude that should be a staple of being a Christian is hard.
In evaluating my own life according to the Scriptures it
becomes clear that I have allowed enemies of gratitude to slip into my life.
Yes there are enemies that do not want you to be thankful to God in all
circumstances. These enemies are idols in our lives.
When we think of idols we often think back to Sunday School
flannel graphs of some stone man-fish character, or the golden calf of the
wandering Israelites. You may even be thinking of the statues of Budha or
Krishna. I often think of Kali from the Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom
movie. Our immediate instinct is to say, “Nope I don’t have one of those in my
life.” But wait, is idol worship limited to a stone statue?
God clearly commands us to have “no other gods before Him”
and “not to make any graven images” (see Exodus 20). So we think as long as I
don’t have little idol statues lying around I am doing pretty good.
However we are worshiping idols in a different manner. Tim
Keller defines an idol as “making a good thing an ultimate thing.” Yes some of the
good things in our lives have become idols. When we value anything above God
then we have created an idol. Any idol in our life is an enemy of gratefulness.
Your comfort, your security, your money, your job, your
friends, your relationships, your grades, your hobbies, etc. could be an idol
in your life. When you feel entitled to something, you lose your thankfulness.
When something you are holding too firmly to becomes threatened, you lose your
thankfulness.
We need to have hearts like Gideon who tore down the idols
of his people (Judges 6). Anything that comes between you and Jesus needs to be
destroyed and put in it’s proper place. When you tear down your idols and you
fix your eyes on Jesus your heart will be overwhelmed with thanksgiving!
Are you thankful? What idols in your life are preventing you
from having an attitude of gratitude?
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