THE ADVENTURE OF WORSHIP by Gerrit Gustafson "12 Convictions of True Worshippers: #7 Worship God Only"

In becoming the worshippers God is seeking, we must take seriously the warning to keep ourselves from idols. Satan will be busy at work trying to divert worship to anything other than God.

When you first consider becoming God's worshipper, Satan will give you every reason in the book to dissuade you, such as "You'll lose all your friends!" etc.. But if Satan sees that you are going to become a worshipper of God no matter what, he changes his tactics. His trick now is to subtly introduce other gods, and then subtly and overtime, elevate them to the number one position.

If you think idolatry is not a problem among the truly devoted, remember that it was Israel's first high priest, Aaron, who oversaw the creation of the golden calf. It was David's son Solomon who in his later years worshipped the goddess Ashtoreth and the god Molech. Both of them had witnesses the miracles of God, with Aaron seeing the miracle of the Red Sea and Solomon who had seen the glory of God fill the temple.

What is an Idol?

They are symbols or images of other gods, including the so-called deities of other religions like Baal or Ashtoreth, as well as other spiritual powers that operate behind the scenes.

For instance, Paul defines sensuality and greed as idolatrous. They are not just bad habits, but false worship, and the powers behind them are "gods" before which people worship.

In idolatry, as in true worship, there is a self-giving, a yielding, a submission to a will outside of yourself.

Satan's rule is, "Worship anything but God."

God-substitutes come in the form of religions, philosophies, political movements, dynamic people, possessions, objects in nature, experiences and other created powers.

We are often slow to recognise the religious nature of our devotion to other gods. For instance, Paul referred to a time when people would be "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:4).

Few recognise that a culture addicted to entertainment and pleasure is involved in a form of forbidden worship, but indeed that culture's love for pleasure has become a substitute for love for God.

Sometimes good things can supplant God as the ultimate Being in our lives. It could be a person you love, a purpose God has set in your heart or a strength He has given you. When kept in their place, these may be very valuable to us, but if they take over the number one spot in our hearts and become more important than God, Satan rejoices.

We must carefully guard against all forms of idolatry.