I found the following helpful.
"Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when it is not permeated with gratitude. When our enjoyment of something tends to make us not think of God, it is moving toward idolatry. But if the enjoyment gives rise to the feeling of gratefulness to God, we are being protected from idolatry. The grateful feeling that we don’t deserve this gift or this enjoyment, but have it freely from God’s grace, is evidence that idolatry is being checked.
Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when its loss ruins our trust in the goodness of God. There can be sorrow at loss without being idolatrous. But when the sorrow threatens our confidence in God, it signals that the thing lost was becoming an idol.
Enjoyment is becoming idolatrous when its loss paralyzes us emotionally so that we can’t relate lovingly to other people. This is the horizontal effect of losing confidence in God. Again: Great sorrow is no sure sign of idolatry. Jesus had great sorrow. But when desire is denied, and the effect is the emotional inability to do what God calls us to do, the warning signs of idolatry are flashing."I'd love to hear your comments on any of this and the previous post as well.
2 comments:
Hey Andy, great thoughts here, thanks for sharing them. I have thought about this for a couple days now and I think I'll throw my opinion in the mix.
First, I acknowledge your desire to Love Jesus more as bigtime, and will assume a desire to love Jesus more as the backdrop for my comments. With out that backdrop my comments won't really make sense.
Second, I often feel Christians are making divisions in this matter and I don't think its the right way to approach it. What I mean is, people feeling like they don't love Jesus rightly if they take extreme delight in something Jesus gave them, or did for them. I don't think their should be a distinction, or division.
Here's an example to illustrate. Take a man and his Bible in an empty room for his entire life - he will love Jesus as much as he can experience Him through the Bible and the Holy Spirit (which is still amazing!). Each gift the Lord gives us, say a tree, a wife, or a tasty pizza, should only enhance and deepen our Love for Jesus, and we should love those things! (assuming again that we have a desire to Love Jesus more). Asking the question which do I love more only adds and unnecessary distinction, for me.
So the question shouldn't be, "do I love this or that more?", but, "is this thing or that truth causing my love for Jesus to increase and mature?"
Perhaps I'm saying the same thing you are but with different words, but it helps me to think of it this way. Personally, when I find myself loving Gods gifts he gave me (my family, hiking, biking, atonement, worship, etc) I find myself delighting in Jesus. When I'm not delighting in the gifts he gave me, I'm usually feeling far from Jesus.
Striving to Love Jesus more with you brother!
Phil,
Thanks so much for your thoughts on this. I am right there with you. This weekend was a great example. We had old friends over and I SO enjoyed being a dad. Both are such good gifts from God. They point me to Him and enjoyment of him. We have an amazing God who lavishes amazing gifts on His children. Thanks for reading.
--Andy
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