Yesterday, I mentioned the need to overcome our passion for things and replace it with a passion for God.  At root is the question of what we value most and where we place our trust – in things or God.  If the answer is things – then we commit idolatry.  Consider the words of the Psalm 135:15-18:

“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths but do not speak; they have eyes but do not see….  Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.”

John Piper, in his book, When I Don’t Desire God, comments on these verses with insightful words:

“Make and trust a blind idol, and you become blind.  Apply that principle to the modern world, and think of the idols of our own day.  What do we make and what do we trust?  Things.  Toys.  Technology.  And so our hearts and affections are formed by these things.  They compress the void in our hearts into shapes like toys.  The result is that we are easily moved and excited by things….”

And yet these things never satisfy.  For as Augustine wrote, speaking of God: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”  When we delight and trust in things, our hearts are formed towards those things, but are hearts remain restless.  We need to redirect our gaze on Christ, reset our desire upon him, place our trust in him.  If trusting in idols makes us like idols, if looking to things makes us like things, then looking to God will make us like him – and we will find rest for our souls. May God help us reset our gaze upon him.