Word-filled Wednesday

God doesn’t want to share you with ANYTHING else. He wants all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. God wants us to CHOOSE Him, to look to Him.

God wants the 1st place position in our hearts and lives.

God gives us this choice.

He doesn’t force our devotion, but asks us to choose, as in Joshua 24:15: “Now fear the Lord and serve Him with ALL faithfulness. (Not partial, not some, but ALL faithfulness) Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped and serve the Lord. But, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

God gives us this choice- are we going to live for Him or for ourselves? Are we going to serve God with all faithfulness or will we serve other gods? Are we going to let idols creep into that 1st place position in our hearts?

What is an idol?”

An idol is simply anything we place in that 1st place position over God. It’s what we give our passion, our time, our SELVES to FIRST.

What have we made first priority in our lives and hearts?

John tells us, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols- from everything and anything that would take 1st place in your life.”

Lisa Bevere says, “An idol is what we give our strength TO or draw our strength from." She says "God will always shake away those idols because He wants us to get our life from Him, not the things that will always disappoint.”

Idols can be things like money, or material possessions, shopping, exercise, our
outward appearance, food, alcohol, admiration of friends, praise of man, work,
TV, or even other relationships.

Now you may be confused because you have to work and you really like chocolate! I have a wonderful husband that I am head over heals about, and five beautiful children whom I love and I spend a lot of time scrapbooking at times.

Are these idols?

These things are not wrong or evil in or of themselves! It’s when we make them a priority over our relationship with God, when we start loving them above loving God. I love my kids, but I love my God even more!

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

What keeps you going through the day?

What are your thoughts on throughout the day?

What do find yourself thinking about and talking about?

You see, I am first grounded in a relationship with my Savior- head over heals in love with Him FIRST, and then, He spills so much love into my heart that it overflows into all these areas of my life.

Jesus teaches us in Mat. 6:24 that “no one can serve 2 masters.” It is impossible. Jesus says, “You will either hate the one or love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

You cannot serve both God and work.

You cannot serve both God and food.

You cannot serve both God and the praise of man.

You cannot serve both God and shopping.

You cannot serve both God and anger.

You cannot serve both God and activities.

Father God, we love You! May You always take FIRST place in our hearts, minds, and time!

Stiff-necked? Me???????

"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. I always pray with joy... being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to COMPLETION until the day of Christ Jesus."

Glory! Yea! He is working in all of us- keep pressing on, dear ones!

Have you read 2Kings lately? Love "Kings".... This is the history of the people of God. They are God's children (supposed to be holy and set apart, remember?). The Israelites are divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. (Remember Jesus is called "Lion of Judah"?) Now, both kingdoms have kings who rule, and 1Kings and 2Kings is about the people and the rulers of this time period. This takes place after King David.

What always amazes me about the people is that they continuously turn to other gods and idols to worship. Remember what God gave them as their first commandment to follow?

"You shall no other gods besides me." And then, "Do not make and worship idols." They serve Almighty God! But, they continue to turn to other gods.

When I taught 6th grade, we studied mythology- Roman, Greek, and Egyptian. We see Roman idol worship throughout the New Testament . Egyptian mythology is during Old Testament times. These people believed if they worshipped and paid homage to each individual god, the god would do something for them. There were gods for fertility, for the "afterlife", for success in war. When the Israelites turned to these "gods," hey thought the gods would help them in some way- with the harvest, fertility, or warfare success. Just to get an idea of how evil these practices were, "Adrammelech" and "Anammelech", gods of the neighboring people, required human sacrifice-their children!

So, the question always is, why do God's people continously turn away from God? And, how does that relate to me today?

Before we go there, let's take a look at 2Kings 17. This is what is happening in the Kingdom of Israel. "They worshipped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced." They look around and they start thinking, "Hey, maybe that will work for us!" They see the "world" around them trying things, and it seems to be working. They have harvests, they are doing OK. Nevermind that the Lord had driven them out years before! Nevermind that God had given the Israelites supernatural victory over them! They start to wonder if there are "better" ways of doing things.

"The Israelites SECRETLY did things against the Lord their God that were not right."

RED FLAG!!!

First of all, we can never do things in secret- God always knows! God knows the secret things! Secondly, if we are doing something in secret, then we know, deep down, it is wrong. We want to keep our sins in the darkness! But, Psalm 139 says, "If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to You."

How many times do we think we are doing things "secretly", somehow getting away with it? But, it is not secret from God!

So "they worshiped idols, even though the LORD said, 'You shall not do this'." God is so good, though! His heart cries out for us. He doesn't want us to go down these paths that lead to destruction. So, God sent prophets to warn the people to turn from their idols and worship only the LORD. But, the Bible says they were "stiff-necked and would not listen." Oh, God! How many times I am "stiff-necked" and won't listen despite Your warnings?! I go along my own way, thinking I know best, looking to the "world" to help me!

Now listen to this! They "did not trust in the LORD their God."

Well, there it is! It boils down to TRUST. Are we going to trust in the LORD our God, even when times are tough, or are we going to seek other ways to "bail us out?" You see, I get impatient or wonder if God's watch is broken! I don't like His timing! Or, life becomes uncomfortable and I turn to idols to comfort me...... a bit of chocolate.....a glass of wine....facebook....a shopping spree.....a TV show....

But, God tells me to wait! Wait for Him.....look to Him....trust Him...turn to Him.

It is a matter of faith! Am I going to trust in the One who alone is trustworthy, or am I going to trust in the ideas of the world around me?

Why do we turn to idols? We have a lack of trust in the One, True God!

Well, Sisters, my prayer for you today is that You will "trust in the Lord with all of your heart. I pray you will NOT lean upon your own understanding (we think we are so smart at times and then we find ourselves turning to idols), but acknowledge Him in ALL of your ways, and then- THEN (HERE IS THE PROMISE!) HE WILL MAKE YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT, HE WILL DIRECT YOUR STEPS."

Father, we give You all the glory! Thank You for Your patience!


Mother Theresa said, "I know God will only give me what He knows I can handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much!"

Don't Waste Your Life!!!!!

As I was writing this morning, I thought about one of my favorite talks, "Don't Waste Your Life". (I speak at women's events) I thought I would post an excerpt. It's long!!!


From "Don't Waste Your Life!"


What else does God want from MY life?”
Ladies, our God is jealous God. He is jealous for you. He doesn’t want to share you with ANYTHING else. He wants all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. God wants us to CHOOSE Him, to look to Him.

God wants the 1st place position in our hearts and lives.

God gives us this choice. He is always the gentleman and doesn’t force our devotion, but asks us to choose, as in Joshua 24:15: “Now fear the Lord and serve Him with ALL faithfulness. (Not partial, not some, but ALL faithfulness) Throw away the gods your forefathers worshipped and serve the Lord. But, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” God gives us this choice- are we going to live for Him or for ourselves? Are we going to serve God with all faithfulness or will we serve other gods? Are we going to let idols creep into that 1st place position in our hearts?

Now, you may be wondering, “Tracy, what do you mean? We don’t bow down to little golden statues. We don’t serve any other gods today- not in the 21 century! That was Old Testament stuff! What is an idol?”

But, an idol is simply anything we place in that 1st place position over God. It’s what we give our passion, our time, our SELVES to FIRST. What have we made first priority in our lives and hearts? John tells us, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols- from everything and anything that would take 1st place in your life.”

Lisa Bevere says, “An idol is what we give our strength TO or draw our strength from. She says God will always shake away those idols because He wants us to get our life from Him, not the things that will always disappoint.”

Idols can be things like money, or material possessions, shopping, exercise, our outward appearance, food, alcohol, admiration of friends, praise of man, work, TV, or even other relationships. Now you may be confused because you have to work and you really like chocolate! I told you I have a wonderful husband that I am head over heals about, and four beautiful children whom I love and I am passionate about speaking and I spend a lot of time scrapbooking at times. Are these idols? These things are not wrong or evil in or of themselves! It’s when we make them a priority over our relationship with God, when we start loving them above loving God. I love my kids, but I love my God even more! What gets you out of bed in the morning? What keeps you going through the day? What are your thoughts on throughout the day? What do find yourself thinking about and talking about? You see, I am first grounded in a relationship with my Savior- head over heals in love with Him FIRST, and then, He spills so much love into my heart that it overflows into all these areas of my life.


Unfortunately, it has not always been so. I consider myself an idol expert because I have bowed down to idols in my life, and they have created areas of bondage I have had to overcome. For me, it started in childhood. Like many women, I had a very dysfunctional family and my childhood was painful. As a young child, I turned to food for comfort, and it became my “safe place.” I used food to escape the pain I was experiencing. As you can imagine, I became an overweight child. Well, the summer before my eighth grade I stopped eating, and began walking everywhere I went. That summer, my weight melted off, and I found something new to fill my emptiness- the attention and praise I received after losing all of that weight. I soon relied on exercise to stay skinny, and I found two new idols- exercise, and the attention I could get with my outward appearance. That continued through high school and college. My personal worth was directly related to my outward experience. In college, I found a new passion- working hard and achieving tremendous success. This continued after college when I became a teacher. I was what you would describe as a workaholic. I needed to be the best, to be perfect. I continually compared myself to everyone around me, and I always had this competitive spirit within me, striving to be better than everyone else- to be the best. As you can imagine, I had set up such strongholds in my life! Of course, at the time, I didn’t think there was anything wrong. I would have considered myself a Christian- I went to church. But, I wasn’t feeding on God. I was feeding on these wordly pursuits, jumping from one to another. I was finding my self worth in these things, and never quite measuring up.

Well, when God moved us to Cedar Rapids, He had some major work to do. Has anyone else ever had some major work to do with God? He was going to deal with all of things, setting me free of all of these strongholds. But, oh, did we have to go through the wilderness. Was it painful! I didn’t even know I had to get rid of all these idols until God began opening my eyes.

When we moved to Cedar Rapids, I jumped right in, joining every possible club, organization, and playgroup. I was pregnant with Ashley, and Andrew was 2 years old. We were constantly on the go! We participated in every possible activity available. I will never forget one morning, I was trying to take Andrew to a playgroup, and he was just a crying and a crying. He said, “Mommy, can’t we just stay home today?” I was trying to keep busy with all of activities, but I was still so lonely.

After Ashley was born, I could not take off the pregnancy weight, I was feeling very depressed. I heard about a bible study that helped you lose weight, so I began facilitating it in my home. Wow! Did God open my eyes. This study taught me about idols, strongholds, and areas of bondage. God set me free by filling my up with HIM. I learned that needed to seek a relationship with Jesus, instead of filling my heart with all of these other wordly pursuits. So, over the past 7 years, God has continually revealed when I was turning to idols, and then helped me work through the process of being set free from them.

Jesus teaches us in Mat. 6:24 that “no one can serve 2 masters.” It is impossible. Jesus says, “You will either hate the one or love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” You cannot serve both God and work. You cannot serve both God and food. You cannot serve both God and the praise of man. You cannot serve both God and shopping. You cannot serve both God and anger. You cannot serve both God and activities.

It is impossible to have two 1st priorities in our lives. We’ll always have a #1 and everything else will follow. Our 1st priority is whatever we give ourselves, our time and our passion to FIRST. Is there anything that is pushing God out of 1st place in your life and heart?
So, what does God want from our lives? God wants our wholehearted devotion, and He wants our whole life.



Father God, we love You! May You always take FIRST place in our hearts, minds, and time!

Idols all around Me!

As I start out early this morning, I realize God wants to continue on the study of idols…. He has so much more to teach me. Father, I pray for deep insight into Your Word today.


Back to Kings. I keep pondering this idea of worshipping both God, but also the gods of the world around us. In Solomon’s day, God warned Solomon not to marry foreign women because the women would turn his heart from the LORD and onto their gods. Solomon doesn’t listen. He thinks he can keep it under control, that he can “handle it.” Solomon ends up marrying 700 foreign wives and has 300 concubines. 1Kings 11:2-4 says, “…the LORD told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love…. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” This led to the downfall of his kingdom. We read that “God raised up an adversary” against Solomon. We read that God says, “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand…”

Later in 2Kings, the people again turn to the gods all around them. 2Kings 17:33,41 says, “They worshipped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought….Even while these people were worshipping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.” (Whew! Does that pierce my heart! I do not want my children to have the same struggles that I did with idolatry and bondage! I do not want them to struggle with a divided devotion as I did!)

When I ponder these verses, I know that when I look to the world, and the idols they promote, I can be tempted to mix my devotion to God with things of the world. This is why Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” And, why he warns us in 2Corinthians, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers….what agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God….As God has said, ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate.’” God wants to separate us from the gods of the worlds around us! He wants us to get our life from Him and not a cheap imitation of what the world has to offer! When we “yoke” ourselves, walk together in agreement with unbelievers, we can be turned to their way of doing things. (Remember Solomon?) This is why it is so important to have a circle of close friends who are also walking with God. They encourage you to seek after Him, not the world.

Speaking of yokes….

In Isaiah, God tells us our idols are burdensome. Isaiah 46:1-2, “…their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together, unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.” Bowing down to our idols makes us weary!

But Jesus said, (hallelujah!) “Come to me, all who are weary and burden laden, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Lord, may we always come to You with our weariness. Thank You, Lord that Your yoke is easy and Your burden light. Thank You that love us so much that You don’t want us to search the world for help or love, but that You offer a True Way, a Pure Way. Forgive us, Father, for times we have tried to worship You and our idols at the same time. Lord, we desire to seek You with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We love You, Lord! In Jesus’ Precious Name we pray! Amen!

It’s a TRUST thing!

Continuing with our “idol study”…….

One thing that God keeps pointing out to me is that we turn to idols when we don’t trust Him. We haven’t completely surrendered to Him, giving Him our complete trust. We try to take care of ourselves, turning to things that SEEM reasonable. We think we can fix things ourselves, take care of ourselves, and we don’t want to wait on God. We want a “quick fix”. We buy into the world’s solutions. You know, like those infomercials that say you can lose 50 lbs in a week with absolutely no exercise, eating whatever you like! (That’s another thing- we also want our “pain free” ways!)

In Exodus, God has just delivered the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt. They witnessed miracles beyond their wildest imagination! God had provided for their needs in awesome ways- manna from heaven, water from a rock. He parted the waters to save them! We look at that, amazed that they wouldn’t trust God, but are we much different? Anyway, God told the people that He was making a covenant with them and they would be His treasured possession. Then, Moses went up to Mount Sinai to be with God and receive His commandments. Well, the people got “antsy.” They were tired of waiting and wanted results RIGHT AWAY. Exodus 32:1 says, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” So, Aaron had the people bring all of their gold and he made it into an idol shaped like a calf. The people said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Then it says, “When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.’” So often, we get impatient with God. We want our answers immediately! The Israelites turned to what was familiar to them- what they had experienced in Egypt. There, it was common to worship golden statues. And, isn’t it amazing that they were going to worship the LORD, but also worshipped the statue? We can do the same thing. We worship our Lord, but also mix it with idolatry. And, look how they credit the god for bringing them out of Egypt! It is the same with our modern idols. We credit them for the good things happening to us.

Well, the Israelites spend the next forty years wandering in the desert. They never make it into their Promised Land with their descendents. Over time, God’s chosen people make it to the Promised Land and follow Him. There is a pattern of being faithful to God, but then they “do evil in the eyes of the Lord.” God gives them over to their enemies, they repent and worship Him. Then, over time, they return to their idols, go into bondage, repent, are delivered, are faithful for a while, return to their idols, go into bondage, repent, are delivered…… God warns them over and over not to worship the gods of the people around them. He knows if they do, the gods will turn the people’s hearts from Him. He wants us to TRUST Him, not the remedies of the world! The kings of Israel and Judah would go in patterns, worshipping the gods of the world around them, “doing evil in the sight of God.”

2Kings 17:7-9says, “All this took place (the capture of Israelites by Assyria) the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites SECRETLY did things against the LORD their God that were not right. (Again, we keep these sins secret, filled with shame) …verse 14 says, “But they would not listen (to the prophets God sent to warn them) and were a stiff-necked people, who did NOT TRUST IN THE LORD THEIR GOD.”

Father God, we praise You! We love You! We fall down asking for Your forgiveness for turning to worthless idols instead of trusting in You. We purpose to “trust in the Lord with all of our heart, leaning not upon our own understanding, but in all of our ways acknowledging You.” Lord, strengthen us, helping us to patiently wait upon You. Show us areas of our lives where we have turned to idols, expecting them to help us. Open our eyes to see You, God! We don’t want to be like the Israelites, worshipping You at the same time making gods to help us. We don’t want to be stiff-necked!!!! Fill us with Your love, Lord. You are more than enough! More than we will ever need! Praise You, God! In Jesus’ Name we pray! Amen!

What's this "idol" thing??

One of my frequent areas of study when I come to the Word is the area of idols and idolatry. There is so much to be said on this subject that I think I could fill a year’s worth of blogs! I think one reason God continually brings me back to it is that (1) it is an area where I need constant reminders and refreshing and (2) it is a common area of struggle for modern day Believers. You see, so many of us think idolatry is a thing of the past, or only in Eastern religions. But, an “idol” is anything we give our hearts to in worship. According to one reference source, an idol “is an object of adoration- somebody (that is interesting!) or something greatly admired or loved, often to excess.” The “often to excess” part is what gets us into trouble!!! We begin to seek after these “things” of the world- work, career, shopping, relationships, food, alcohol, activities, exercise- to satisfy the longings of our heart. We seek gratification in these areas, or go to them when we experience the loneliness of our hearts…. We are deceived into thinking that we will be satisfied by seeking after these pursuits.

Anyway, I have studied this topic because for so much of my life, I sought after idols to fulfill me. For a long time, I used food to comfort me. When I felt overwhelmed by my circumstances, I would turn to food. When I felt lonely, I would turn to food. When I felt upset, I would turn to food. I would “reward” myself with food. I ate in secret. Whew- Proverbs 9:17-18, “Folly cries to us, ‘Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!’ But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.” Wow! Food “called my name.” I felt out of control with my eating. On the one hand, hating how I looked from overeating, but continuing to turn to food for escape. Uhhh!!!! But, praise God, there is FREEDOM in Jesus Christ! Praise God that He set me free from this area of bondage. I first needed to be honest with myself about turning to something other than God, the Creator of the Universe, my Redeemer, my Savior, my Rock, the Lover of my soul for satisfaction. I continue to press on in this area because I see so many of us as Christians struggling with bondage and bowing down to idols. There is SOOOOOOOO much in the Word about this area.

Of course, the Old Testament is full of passages on idolatry because the Israelites would continually go back to their idols over and over again. God would punish them, bringing them into captivity until they repented, crying out for Him. Then, they would go back to their idols, despite God’s warnings. He loves us so much and wants so much more for us than to follow after false gods- things that will always suck the life FROM us, instead of giving life to us. Think about it. When food was my idol, my health was compromised. I hated how I looked. I felt embarrassed. My clothes didn’t fit. It stole my time- I would continue to go back to the pantry all day long looking for food. (Like it was going to magically appear since the last time I looked??????) And, I would find myself getting behind on household chores because I was spending time on eating or thinking about eating!

But, idolatry is found in the New Testament, also! Jesus talks about idolatry. It is in Paul’s letters and John’s. But, Praise God, we have HOPE and freedom in the New Testament! Because of Jesus, we have freedom from the bondage of idols. We are more than conquerors! We are empowered to be free from idols because we have the Most High God living inside of us! Hallelujah!!!!!