Idol:

1. An image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed.
2. Bible; a.  an image of a deity other than God.
              b.  the deity itself.
3. any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion: Madame Curie had been her childhood idol.
4. a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance, as a phantom.
5. a figment of the mind; fantasy.

When I think about it, I am ashamed to say, I have many idols. My husband, my home, my cats, my computer, my church…the list goes on. If your whole life revolves around something or someone other than God, can it be considered an idol?

I think of an idol in Old Testament times as something that was made by man, but that people have made into something it is not. Those idols have taken on an importance and a power that is not reality. People think those idols can have an effect on their daily lives when they have no power whatsoever.

Are the things of great importance in my life, really an idol? I don’t sit down and pray to my television, or expect my cats to have super natural powers. I don’t think my husband can fix everything. And even though I stare at my computer screen a lot, and it connects me to some of my friends, I don’t think it will be responsible for me getting into Heaven. If I were to lose everything, like Job did in the Old Testament, would I still reach out to God? All the things and all the people, and all of my cats will be gone someday. There will be nothing else left when it is all said and done, but my relationship with the Lord.

It is wonderful to have things in our lives that make us happy. People to love, animals to make us laugh. God wants us to enjoy life, but we must also remember who put us here, and who gave us all of our “things”, and who will be the only thing that is left when all else is stripped away.