Devotional Day 18

Scripture

Psalm 115

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. 8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. 9 O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. 12 The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; 13 he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. 14 May the Lord give you increase, you and your children! 15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth! 16 The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. 17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!

Devotional

We become what we behold, whether it be the one true and living God, or an idol.

Psalm 115 teaches us this, that idols are blind, deaf, mute and powerless and that if we worship them we become spiritually blind, deaf, mute and powerless. It’s a sobering thing to think about isnt it, that ultimately we end up becoming what we worship, being more and more conformed into the image and likeness of what we worship as our god.

It is not a small thing to fall into the sin of idolatry, we see there are genuine consequences for it. For example, if we idolise pornography - because we are giving ourselves sexually to an idol, we become spiritually blind and deaf in our sexuality and intimacy. We would find ourselves unable to discern or hear the Lord’s voice in this area, because we have not allowed him to sit on the throne of our hearts, because when we idolise pornography we have of our own volition, stopped our ears, saying ‘la, la, la, I can’t hear you’ to the Lord. For many, even a whole generation, our sex lives have been discipled by pornography rather than by God’s word, as we’ve allowed pornography to determine what is normal and good for us.

Idolatry of sex can and does lead to sexual brokenness in marriage and relationships. It can even see you blinded to the true beauty of your spouse, or stop you from dating wonderful godly people because you have become spiritually blind - your perception of beauty having been skewed by pornography. And these are just some examples of how idolising pornography can cause us to become blind and deaf to what God has for us because we have idolatry in one area.

This same thing can happen in any areas we have an idol, we become spiritually blind and deaf to the voice of the Lord and the leading of the spirit where we have idolatry because we have chosen to not worship God in this area. This is why the bible teaches us in Romans that in order to discern God’s will, we need to stop being conformed to the pattern of the world and see the renewal of our minds!

The good news is that when we uproot the idolatry of pornography and turn to worship God again we become spiritually able, instead of spiritually disabled in that area. We can see and hear what God has for us again. This in part is what redemption looks like, where God’s vision for our sexuality comes back into focus and we begin to look more like God, allowing his Kingdom to be birthed through our lives as we become more Christ-like - seeing how he sees, being able to hear his will for us, and seeing purity, selflessness and love dominate our relationships, marriages and lives again.

Prayer

Spend time today in prayer offering your sexuality to God. Actively repenting for the idolatry of pornography and asking God in his grace to give you vision again, his vision for your life in this area. Then take some time to listen to what he tells you, write it down and begin to contend for it in faith as a part of God’s prophetic plan for your life.