There will probably be 3-4 posts (and years of reflecting) that come out of my reading of Brad Bigney’s book this year, but for now I want to share some passages that are challenging, encouraging and shaping me in my first stroll through this book.

When we go anywhere else except to God himself, we make ourselves enemies of the cross of Christ; we disdain the cross of Christ; we turn from the cross of Christ and say, “No, no, no. It’s somewhere else. I’ll find refuge and satisfaction somewhere else.” That is the essence of idolatry—setting your mind on earthly things. (p. 161)

We don’t see that what we’re asking God to give us is an idol, but he does. He sees that we’ve shifted from the gospel and our Savior as our sole source of joy and purpose. God won’t help us to chase our idols. He is a jealous God. In Isaiah 42:8, he proclaims, “I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.” When God sees you pursuing the glory of another, he’s not going to help you get it. (p. 21)

As you discover your idols, and God turns the floodlight onto the filth of your heart, you will be discouraged, so you’d better look to Christ! Read the Gospels again. Study the account of the cross. Go to Galatians and read about grace, not law. Preach the gospel to yourself every day. Delight in your Savior. Glance at your heart, but gaze at Christ. Keep the main thing the main thing. (p. 35)

Everything outside of God in Christ is saltwater, and it only leaves you thirstier than you were before. (p. 50)

God is in the idol-smashing business not because he’s egotistical. He’s in the idol-smashing business because he is good, and because he’s good, he knows you’ll never find happiness in counterfeits. They will lead only to more messes and further entanglements if you go anywhere but to him. He would prove himself unloving, ungracious, and unmerciful if he let you go. For his glory and our good, he’s in the idol-smashing business. (p. 163)

Find out what God’s Word says—and whether you feel like it or not, whether it seems right to you or not, take your heart, and you move it in the direction that God’s Word says. (p. 133)

God is worthy of having it all be about him, and he knows you are most miserable when you live for anything other than him. So the most loving thing he can do is to rise up in his jealous, righteous anger for his own glory and your good, and topple the house of cards you’ve built for yourself, because you won’t find lasting fulfillment and peace in living that way. (p. 86)

The gospel is our only hope if we’re to escape wasting our life in pursuit of counterfeits. Don’t just say “no” to idols; say “yes” to all that Christ is for you in the gospel. (p. 130)

Consider again Richard Keyes’s explanation: ‘At the most basic level, idols are what we make out of the evidence for God within ourselves and in the world—if we do not want to face the face of God Himself in His majesty and holiness. Rather than look to the Creator and have to deal with His lordship, we orient our lives toward the creation, where we can be more free to control and shape our lives in our desired directions…. However, since we were made to relate to God, but do not want to face Him, we forever inflate things in this world to religious proportions to fill the vacuum left by God’s exclusion.’ (p. 116)

Idols are like chameleons, manifesting themselves in different ways, depending on your circumstances, your season of life, your age, your job, and your current struggles. And they manifest themselves differently, depending on where you’re weakest at any given point in your life. (p. 186)