Do you feel as though you’ve given up everything for God?
When we actually give up all, we learn of God. It is then that we will say We are His and He is ours. That is a marriage. Both hearts are mutually committed. It is then that we will know we are not serving other gods.
Idolatry comes in many forms and shapes and things, even people.
One cannot be married to God and self and others. No matter what one thinks, they are deceived.
Study out how God required His people to destroy, tear down, or burn up all that was in the land of Canaan. He had brought them there to inhabit; but it was already inhabited by the heathen. They were ordered to keep nothing. If they kept anything, curses would come.
Numbers 33:51-53 KJV
[51] Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; [52] Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: [53] And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.
Deuteronomy 7:1-6 KJV
[1] When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; [2] And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: [3] Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. [4] For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. [5] But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. [6] For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The old man and the old man’s past is just that. They are to be left dead and buried, not dug up and given place in the new life. The new creature in Christ is converted. The new creature does not look back, like Lot’s wife, who died from looking back during Sodom’s destruction. The new creature is converted and lives in the present. This new person is now in Christ, abides in Christ, and Christ in that person. It is a mutual abiding, like marriage.
Be aware and beware: Satan and his demons, his workers of iniquity, will use our past to lay snares for us. If we are looking back, we will be woefully unprepared to deal with the present. We will be overcome because of being on Satan’s ground, digging up the old self, rather than seeing the snare laid to trap us.
In saying all this, I’m not speaking of looking at pictures of our children and loved ones, as we see them growing and progressing. I am speaking of that which takes the mind back to when we were in sin, practicing sin, when we were the old man, looking back as if “those were the good ol’ days.” Beware of looking at self and others as if something is missing now or as if former times and ways were better and are missed. This is what Lot’s wife’s looking back meant. Immediately, she turned into a pillar of salt.
Those who find themselves in the state of looking back, remembering and missing cannot be the salt of the earth. Instead, they become changed by whatever or whoever held their attention. They have become good for nothing.
We have to be mindful of and intentional about seeking God. We cannot afford to be idle in any way. Such times are best for Satan to successfully use distractions in gaining control of our minds. If we give in to his temptations, we yield our will to Satan more and more. That yielding strengthens Satan’s controlling power over our minds.
To whom are we yielding ourselves as servants to obey, to show our love: God or Satan?