Broken Bondage
Have you ever desperately wanted something, but in the end found that it didn’t bring fulfillment? The faded glory of a person or thing might suggest that you were unknowingly idolizing them. Idols entice with their beauty and fleeting pleasure, but once they have your heart, they enslave you, locking you into relational bondage or addiction.
Sometimes this happens when we engage in a little retail therapy. That perfect pair of shoes, the coolest car—or the outfit that takes us to the next level. But soon the thrill is gone. What happened?
In Hosea 10:5-7 we read about Israel’s idols that soon lost their glory and filled them with shame. In their disobedience, God’s children were cut off like foam or “a twig that is carried away by a stream of water.”
Are you in bondage to unbridled passions? Do you want to escape the cycle of disappointment and “faded glory”? If so, it takes sacrifice. Escaping bondage always requires some form of destruction - the act of “breaking” or “burning” our idols. We see a physical example of this with Gideon in the book of Judges. God instructed him to go to his father’s house and smash to pieces the family idols (Joshua 6:25). While we might not be able to physically smash our idols to pieces, we certainly shouldn’t surround ourselves with them if they tempt us. In order to break free from bondage, it takes an act of inner breaking - of separating ourselves from the things we idolize and cutting our ties to it.
I don’t know what idols hold a grip on your life, but if you desire immunity from the things that dazzle your eyes and imprison your heart, it starts with the destruction of your idols. Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 1:9, “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”
The Thessalonians had a reputation that preceded them because they turned from their idols to serve the living and true God. Does your reputation precede you?
Recommended Reading: Dashed to Pieces
