With Our Savior Wednesdays: What Do We Idolize?
Join us on JoyAlive.net for the Lenten series for the whole family, “With Our Savior Wednesdays” for mid-week inspiration from Claire McGarry, author of With Our Savior.
Wednesday, Fifth Week of Lent
What Do We Idolize?
They have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” EXODUS 32:8
The people in the Old Testament often created golden calves or other images to worship. Instead of praying to God, they’d bow down and pray to these idols instead. They believed they’d help their crops grow or bring them victory in battle.
From where we stand today, this sounds silly. Because we don’t bow down to golden calves, we presume we’re not guilty of idol worship. But do we fixate on video games, thinking about them even when we’re not playing them? Do we bring our phones to the dinner table and answer calls and text messages instead of honoring family time?
Any time we put something before God and people, we risk turning that thing into an idol. We may not be physically bowing down to it, but we’re certainly letting it rule over us.
WITH OUR SAVIOR » Dear God, save me from putting anything before you or the people I love.
WITH YOUR FAMILY » Pay attention to what you think about most. If it’s not God, or the people you love, you just might be making that thing into an idol. If so, try giving it up for one week to remove the risk of worshipping it.
Enjoy all the posts in the With Our Savior Wednesdays series.
Claire McGarry is the author of the Lenten devotional With Our Savior, published by Creative Communications. Her freelance work has appeared in various Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Focus on the Family magazine, These Days devotional, and the Keys for Kids devotional. The founder of MOSAIC of Faith, a ministry with several different programs for mothers and children, she blogs at Shifting My Perspective and contributes to JoyAlive.net and CatholicMom.com.
Copyright © 2019 Creative Communications for the Parish, used with permission.
