Monday Meditation: Christ and My Idolatry

Isaiah 44:21-22
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.   I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

I'm an idolator.  I know it.  I love my stuff, my technology, my entertainment.  Plain and simple I love many things at times more than I love my God.  And those things merely replace God, stand in as a substitute to Him and become a source of joy and satisfaction that my twisted heart often perceives as greater joy and satisfaction than Christ.  

So where does that leave my soul?  Mostly pretty dry, and mostly pretty distant from God.  My affections for Him and dulled, muted, and quenched.  Hearing Him in the Word isn't a joy, or a delight.  More than anything it is a duty.  Just get through it so I can mark off the check list that I did my time in the Word today.  And I'm off to worship at the god I really love. 

The plain reality is that I am an idolator.  

And yet in the midst of my idolatry Isaiah 44:21-22 comes and hits me right where I live.  Remember that idols are nothing, remember they can't give lasting joy and satisfaction, remember those who worship them are worthless.  Remember God formed me, He called me to be His servant, He will not cease to forget me or let go of me.  He has sent His Son to stand in my place for all of my idolatry and take all the shame and guilt that were mine.  On that cross Jesus became the idolator, and I the one who never loved any other but God.  Christ was the idol worshipper, I was the true believer.  Christ was the sinner, bowing down to the bronze statue, worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, he was the idolator.  I was the righteous one.  My sin was blotted out, my transgressions removed.  

"Return to me" the Lord cries, repent of your idolatry... forsake your wood-worshipping ways.  Turn from placing stuff, and prestige, and entertainment, and this world and it's garbage before Me.  Forget walking in the way to demonstrate your affection for celebrities, and sports and passions and lusts of your own.  "Return to me, for I have redeemed you."  Remember? Remember.