According to history, the Philistine idol Dagon had a fish face and a man's body, looking very foolish like some Nickelodeon cartoon characters. When the Philistines captured the ark of God from Israel, they set the ark in front of the idol. Why would they first bring the ark to the idol? As I grew up in a Buddhist family, I remember that whenever my grandparents received gifts like tasty treats, they would first take them to the Buddhist altar and "present it to Buddha." We would have to wait about 30 minutes before we can eat the treats because Buddha gets to "taste it first." This custom was annoyance to me as a young child, who just wanted to eat the treats right away.
When we have idols in our lives, we do the same thing that the Philistines and my grandparents did with their idols. We bring everything in our lives to our idol first and run everything by it first. If you weren't sure if you have an idol, whatever that you run everything by first is your idol / God. If it is God that you run everything by first, that's great! Praise the Lord! But if not, you have an idol on your hands.
After the Philistines set the ark of God in front of Dagon, the idol fell on its face before the presence of the ark. Yet the next day, the idol still stood in its place like nothing ever happened. Why? Because the Philistines propped it up!
Have you ever wondered why it seems impossible for you to live a Jesus-centered life? Could it be because of idolatry in your life, where your life centers around something or someone other than the Lord Jesus? So if you have idols in your life, what can you do to defeat them? If you are born again, you have someone better than the ark of God, the Holy Spirit. In His presence, your idols fall flat on their faces. The only thing you need to do is simply to NOT prop the idols back up! The only reason why an idol stays alive in someone's life is if he keeps propping it up because idols are dead things that have no life or power of their own. Idols need your help for their survival.
So next time the Holy Spirit knocks down your idol to the ground before your eyes, leave it on the ground no matter how messy it may seem to you. In fact, you should probably step on it and move on forward with Jesus in freedom!
Older
Top
