Romans 1:22-25 (ESV)

²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

In the past two blogs that I wrote, we saw that as men we have a tendency to exchange the truth of God for a lie by worshipping the creation rather than the creator. We have seen materialism, greed, love for stuff overtake our love for God. In many instances, even Christians go to church for the motivation to get what they want from God and not because they love God.  In some sense, we worship God to get our idols.

When good things become a God to us – we fall into the sin of idolatry. Exchanging the glory of immortal images (money, power, fame, objects of worship), we dishonor God with our actions and motives.

In verse 24, we see an action God does – He gave us what we wanted. And this is not a good thing but rather a judgment God has given the people for wanting to exchange God for something else.  He gave them up to the lust of their hearts to impurity…. To give us up to our desire is an act of judgment and wrath because our hearts were made to be satisfied in Christ alone. And for God to give us up to our lust means that we will have a never ending cycle of wanting more, looking for more, feeling the need for more but never being fully satisfied.

Take for instance a young man who desires to be famous and affirmed by the people who follows him. Fame becomes his drive and motivation, and he achieves his goal. But at the back of his mind, he knows that he is only as good as his last performance – so he flings his life towards sustaining the fame and power he has until he burns out. One flop, one mistake, one wrong career move can spell the end of his career and reputation. He compromises his beliefs and values – he loses himself in the process. “Idolatry” is the tragedy of wanting something and someone else to satisfy us when we all know that only God can truly fill.

Is there a way for us to not fall into this trap of over desiring things that the world offers? The answer is found in the same verse – rather than worshipping the creation- we worship the creator – GOD. It is an acknowledgment that all I will ever need in life is found in God. You satisfy, you provide, your love and presence are all I need. I am thoroughly blessed because I have you.

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