...New...and Improved!

We are so fickle. We are so prone to change. Perpetual change it seems. Out with the old, in with the new. Time to get a new car. A new fridge. A new house. A new look. A new President. Change we must. Change we can. Why are we never satisfied?

And please notice how the marketers play on this intricacy of human nature. They are always introducing new products to replace what was new just last year. They have a way of making even what we love sound trivial and ordinary. In doing this, they whet our insatiable appetite for something new.

Are your sales down? Just put the words “new” on the box and you are guaranteed a 30% retail boost! God knows of this tendency among our race. So He warns us through one of His main marketing men, John, to watch out for it, especially as it concerns Him. This is because God cannot be improved upon in any manner. He cannot be upgraded. So in closing out the first letter of John we are mandated, “keep yourselves from idols.”

These “idols” are absolutely anyone or anything that we would elevate to God’s rightful place in within the context of the flow of our lives. And these “idols” are marched before our eyes fast and furiously.

Charles H. Spurgeon once implied that our hearts themselves are thriving idol factories. So any thought, word or action that causes us to forget the Lord and love it more than Him – we are to keep away from – whatever it may be.

In order to do this, we need to know our tendencies and ourselves. But more than that even, we need to know our God and not allow ourselves to be distracted by cleverly designed advertising.