At some point in your faith journey you will encounter the issue of idols and idolatry. Idolatry is not just people long ago worshipping stone images. It’s a heart issue. Let’s explore how idols might look in Mormonism and what we can learn about idolatry since leaving Mormonism.
[Related Series: Idols]
[Related: Beware of 4 Modern Day Idols]
Video Highlights:
- How I understood idolatry as LDS. I thought of idolatry as praying to statues. I began to see it was possible to worship things such as sports or famous athletes. I wasn’t satisfied that I had a full understanding of idolatry
- How my view of idolatry began to change. I was still LDS when I became born again. God began to address the issue of idols in my heart. I realized that an idol can be anything – anything that we place in front of God or make more important than him.
- Some of the idols I identified in my life. First, God convicted me that I had made an idol out of my children. I realized it is possible to make idols out of things that are good, such as family, children, or church. Church leaders are often raised up to prominence. Any of these things can become a priority over God. When someone passes away, I realized that Latter-day Saints tend to say, “They will be with Grandpa (or Mom, Dad, or other dead loved ones) now.” I was hearing Christians say, “They are with Jesus now. They are worshiping God now.” It seemed like, in our vision of eternity, we were putting our family members as ultimate ahead of Jesus.
When you experience how great and transcendent the living God truly is, it becomes harder to place idols ahead of him. Think about how much God is worth and how much he deserves from our hearts. Let’s see if there are things – even good things – that divert our love and adoration away from what we owe to God alone.
[Related: Purging the Idols in a Woman’s Heart]
[Related: The Heart Wants What It Wants]
[Related: When Good Things Become an Idol]
[Related: You Will Become What You Worship]
