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23rd September 2024
MondayReflection
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'David Platt shares'
a pastor in metro Washington, D.C
"Resisting the Temptation of
Idols "
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"And the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces"
.....Ezekiel 14:2-3
Again, here in Ezekiel 14, this is God speaking about the elders, the leaders among his people, but the picture here is really powerful.
Just let this soak in.
Verse three, these men, these leaders have taken their idols into their hearts.
Just think about that phrase to take an idol into your heart.
I just want to ask you, even as I ask myself.
As I read that phrase, I think, what idols have I taken into my heart?
Or what idols am I tempted to take into my heart?
What are the things, the gains, the ...
Well, it could be any number of things that hold my heart away from wholehearted love for God.
What am I tempted to desire more than I desire God?
What am I tempted to prioritize more, to want more in my life, to give my attention and affection to in my life more than God?
Like the first, greatest commandment Jesus says is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strengths.
So just think right now, what idols are you tempted to take into your heart?
And I just want to lead us to pray according to this verse, Ezekiel 14:3, and this phrase, God, cleanse our hearts of all idols, we pray.
God, help us to see, open our eyes to any and every way that we give our hearts over to idols, over to things that pull our hearts in any way away from you. God, we want to love you with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength.
You are worthy of our whole hearts, not half hearted devotion.
God, forgive us, deliver us from half-hearted following after you, half-hearted worship.
In any way partial hearts given over to you, God, we want to love you with everything in us, that you would be the end of our affections, the focus of our attention.
God, that we would not desire or love, or want, or prioritize in our time, in our energy, in our affections, in our attention; success, sex, money, material things, possessions, pursuits in this world, pride, our reputation.
Oh God, there's so many things, the list could go on and on and on of things that we are tempted to take into our hearts, to prioritize in our hearts over you and your glory and your beauty and your majesty.
God, we want to love you with everything in us.
Oh God, we want you to be exalted in our hearts.
We want you to be exalted among all the nations, among all the idols of this world.
God, we pray for the Sikkim Bhutia of people of India today.
That they would see that you alone, Jesus, are worthy of their worship.
God, we pray that the hearts of the Sikkim Bhutia in India would be captured by you and your grace and your love.
We pray this in our lives, we pray this in all the places where we live, God, in our cities and our countries.
God, may idols of this world be shown for what they are.
May you be exalted as the one true God who alone is worthy of worship.
And may that be clear in our hearts,
we pray in Jesus's name.
Amen.
><(((°>
'David Platt'
serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C.
He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don't Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture,
Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
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