Lies

Romans 1: 21-25 "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen." NIV

Why does it seem so easy to believe lies? It should be fairly hard in light of the wonders of the world around us and even in us, in our own bodies and in the food we eat and the emotions we feel. God's handy work is all around us, but so often we see his beautiful creation as a part of the mundane. It's just a tree, nothing special. It's just me, nobody important. We start to believe lies when we, as Paul says, stop glorifying God and giving thanks to Him, recognizing Him and paying attention to the little details and the greater story of our lives and creation, the gospel. We don't make traditional idols for ourselves, but we elevate and worship things above God just the same. The created things, like tv where we waste time, or our schedules, or even our work, knitting, reading. Anything that distracts us from God and takes our focus off of him is an idol. But God is bigger than us, and he knows that we need him. He "will never leave us nor forsake us." He has given us his power, the power to fight back and to resist the idols of this world.