At one point in my life, I had a problem of being majorly concerned about what people thought of me. I would be totally upset to be misunderstood and judged wrongly. As a grown man, I would become like a child, pouting. How people viewed me played a large part in my life. God brought deliverance in my life through the scripture Matthew 19:16-22. The scripture reads as:
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
This was a turning point for me as Holy Spirit began to minister to me about my fault. Side note: God is loving, even when He is correcting us. He is not harsh, but tender and loving. We should never hide from Him, for He loves us so much and is ready and willing to forgive us our sins.
Back to the point: Holy Spirit explained to me through this scripture that this young man had many things going well for him in his walk with God. The thing he forgot to evaluate was his heart. The heart reveals more than what a person can see with the eyes. Remember, Jesus has already explained to us that adultery is not just the act of being intimate with someone other than your spouse, it is the desire of the heart that commits the sin of adultery when a person wants to be intimate with someone other than their spouse. The heart… This young man upheld a lot of commandments that can be seen with the eyes, but his fault was this; He was so attached to his possessions that they became an idol. An idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship. The bible clearly states that we should have NO other god before Jehovah. Jesus pointed out to the young man that he had truly not followed all of the commandments because he had violated not being an idolater. His possessions were a god because he put them first before God. The bible says that the young man left sorrowful. He was sorrowful because he knew that he was not going to get rid of his wealth and follow Jesus. The young man’s idol was his wealth.
This is how I learned that my image was an idol in my life. I would not do something that God required of me, if I thought that the request would harm my image/the way people saw me. I’m please to say today, brothers and sisters, that I am free from idolatry. How free are you? What have you put before God? The test is to ask yourself what you would not walk away from or give up if God required you to do so.
I end by explaining this. God is not some mean tyrant that wants you to be poor and lonely. He only wants you to put Him before everything and everyone. Remember, He sacrificed His Son for you that you can have an abundant life, this is recorded in John 10:10. Therefore my extended family, let us do as Jesus stated in Matthew 22:37 "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
