Placing God First Brings Clear Ears

Throughout the month of January, we are focusing on God’s plans for our lives and how He is the Way Maker to make those plans become a reality. He does not call us to do something and then step away, He makes a way. But as we learned last week, our hearts must be open to receive His plan in our lives. A hard heart prevents us from hearing God’s plan and living it out.

There may be times in our lives when our heart is hard, and we don’t even realize it. To keep our hearts moldable and usable by God, we must put Him first. Throughout my life, I have had times of a hard heart due to unforgiveness, fear, unknown future circumstances, and confusion. These times started out with my obsessing over a certain person, circumstance, or object, and then allowing it take over my thoughts, motives, actions, and speech. They hardened my heart because I saw no hope in these circumstances and felt like I needed to fix them instead of giving them to God. I allowed them to become an idol without even realizing.

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses taught the Israelites and warned them of idolatry and hard hearts. He says in verse 9, “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.” He was wanting them to be careful that they do not forget that it is only because of God that they are free from slavery and have defeated armies instead of becoming slaves again. It is only the grace of God that they are alive and well. Moses did not want them to forget that everything comes from God. He then warns them of Idol worship in verses 15-24. He says, “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, and image of any shape, whether formed like a man or woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshipping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.” That very last part of those verses sticks out to me. We are not to be enticed into bowing down to anything that the Lord has made. We place things before the One that created them. He is over all things and the only One worthy of worshipping.

It is very easy to say, “I have no idols. God is the only thing I worship.” If you are going through a season of your life where you truly have no other gods before God, good for you. I pray that you keep it up. But, for the rest of us that can pinpoint at least one thing that we try to control and not give to God, or a circumstance that allows fear to take the place of God’s peace, or a person that we idolize to the point where we feel like life would end without them, this is for us.

God has warned His followers of idol worship from the beginning of time because He knows it separates us from Him. He wants nothing more than to have a true and open relationship with us. He wants us to experience the peace that comes from Him through surrender. He wants these things for us but for some reason we hold onto our problems like they are made of gold. We treasure them instead of releasing them.

My husband is a hunter and I have heard more times than I would like to about rut season. During this season, the male deer are stirring in the woods when the female deer are in estrous and ready to breed. The male deer is so obsessed with finding the female deer that they will go without eating because all they think about is finding the female. They reduce their food intake and increase their activity. They use their body reserves to give them the energy they need to search, and they may lose up to 25% of their body weight during rut. Some bucks may even push the envelope too far, and if there is not enough food after rut, they succumb to starvation. You may be asking yourself, “Why is she telling us all this? What does this have to do with idol worship and hard hearts?” Jeremiah, one of God’s prophets who was assigned a very difficult task, had to tell the Israelites all about how their idol worship separated them from God. That is no easy task. He described their idol worship as a wild animal in search of the opposite sex ready to reproduce. Jeremiah 2:23 says, “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after Baal?’ See how you have behaved in the valley, consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving—in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.” The people were saying that they had no idols before God, but they were blinded by what they put above Him. They thought they did not run after Baal or other idols, but the truth of the matter is that idols do not run after us, we have to pursue them. God is the only One that runs after us and if we have something that consumes our time and thoughts over God, we have pursued it. These animals are searching so hard that they push themselves to the point of having tired and aching feet and dry throats, just like the bucks who decrease their food and lose 25% body weight to find what they are obsessing over.

When I read these verses, I was shocked to realize I had idols that were draining me and keeping me from filling up on Jesus. I was decreasing my Jesus tank and increasing my tank with meaningless worry and fear because of the idol I had placed over Him. I was running wildly through life in search of something that would not fulfill me.

When we have idols over God, we cannot hear His plan for our lives. We have succumbed to the ways of the world and have lost all sense of control. We may think we have control over ourselves, but true control over oneself is the ability to have self-control and allow ourselves to go to God first. What idol in your life is putting a barrier between you and God? What is inhibiting you from seeing God making a way in your life? It is time to place our worldly desires aside, our habits of control that we have had for so many years and give it all to God. His plans are far greater than ours and He wants to see us flourish.

“Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.” Psalm 40:5

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9

“Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:47

Digging Deeper:

What have you placed before God?

What do you need to do so that you place God back on His throne?

How are you still before the Lord so that you can hear His voice?