“And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no
other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form
of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a
jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and
fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand
generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:1-4)
How do we combat the temptation to be involved in modern day
idol worship?
Here are some steps from
the local youth group (CHAOS came up with:
1.
Pray: pray for the Spirit of the living God to
help us recognize when something or someone is taking the place of God in our
life.
2.
Pray: pray for God to give us the strength to
crush the idol. This prayer may involve praying for God to help us walk away
from a relationship that is now consuming us and perhaps has us compromising our
morals and Godly values. This prayer made involve asking God to help us spend
less time with video games, watching sports, adding to our music library, shopping,
etc.
3.
Pray: pray for God to help us spend more time
with him and less time with the idol. REPLACEMENT: Do not just stop worshipping
the idol. Replace the idol with Godly activity. Increase our prayer life, time
worshipping, reading scripture, involvement at church and youth group,
volunteering. Basically spend more time in kingdom work.
4.
Pray: pray for a Godly friend or love one to
pray for us daily in this area and help hold us accountable. One example:
parents that limit our daily use of video games.
Finally: Remember: We are JESUS followers. We are people of
the BOOK (the LIVING word of God).
