MARCH 13,  Galatians 5:20

The first word in today’s verse is “idolatry”. What does that mean? It is a sin of putting something or someone before God. We need to understand that anything we put before God can become, for us, an idol. God wants no other gods before Him – and that means we must love Him more than anything or anyone in the world. Yes, more than you love your parents, or computer games, or whatever hobby you have. If we make something the first priority in our life, even watching television, it can become the same as worshiping an idol in God’s eyes. There is nothing wrong with watching television, or playing sports, or whatever, just so long as God is still first.

How much time in a busy day do we have for God? Because of their busy lives and your desire to have as much fun as possible, you may often place God in the back seat. Try this exercise...

Imagine it is about eight o’clock Saturday morning and you just woke up. Assuming you sleep at ten o’clock at night, you have 14 hours to burn before it is time to go to bed. Using the chart of activities below, show how much time you would like to spend on each activity, using up all of the 14 hours. If you like, you can show 0 hours on any activity. Try it and see how much time you spend on God and things related to Him. Then you can see how much time you spend on things not related to God. Among the things you do a lot, is anyone of them your idol?

Thought: Is there anything I love more than God?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me love Christ more and more so that there would be no idol in my life. In His precious name I pray, Amen.