Heart Undivided: What James 4 Teaches About Idolatry, Surrender, and Putting God First

"You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself and enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him." James 4:4-5 NLT

The Lord is Jealous for us. Not for our Sundays best. Not for our morning or night or meal time prayers. He is jealous for our time. For our priorities. For our hearts. He doesn’t just want our good and beautiful. He wants it all. He wants our questions and our answers. Our confusion and our dreams.

James really calls us out on our priorities here. He doesn’t mesh words or sugar coat. He calls our hearts out and reveals an area that most of us, if we are honest, live from on a regular basis.

Unholy relationships... Through out the book of James a line in the sand has been drawn. He makes it abundantly clear that that simply being a good person, does not make you a “good Christ-follower”. It’s not about saying and doing the good things, but the Christ-things. The reality is if good deeds were enough we wouldn’t need Jesus. Doing the “good things” does not make them or us holy.

Matthew says seek first the Kingdom of God... that’s not simply good advice, it’s the priority list that God wants for our lives. And the truth is that anything that I cannot call innately “holy” in my life is really unholy.

Ouch!

James is saying I don’t need to have a literal idol built in my home to carry around an idol in my heart. Anything that I cannot say is a holy relationship in my life is, therefore, an unholy relationship. Sometimes it’s easily recognizable. Sometimes it’s seemingly harmless. Sometimes it's something God is calling us out of or into. Sometimes we already know that thing, habit, or (insert issue here) that God is ready to remove in our lives, but instead we find ourselves justifying it with phrases like “it’s just…" The reality is that anytime I chose something, anything over God, (my time, resources, desires, priorities) I have built an idol in my heart and created an unholy relationship. God is jealous for my attention and my heart.

This week can we ask ourselves – in what areas of our lives do we maybe have unholy relationships? Lets be honest with ourselves, because the moment we admit weakness is the moment sin no longer has power over us.

Take a real and true look at the things in our life that we are enjoying and ask, if we lost that today, would we move on like nothing has changed or would it feel like our lives were in a spiraling free fall?

Maybe it’s not even something bad. Maybe it is not something, at first glance, you would even classify as harmful or sinful. The truth is good deeds are not ever going to be enough, but Jesus is. And He wants more of you. He wants more of me. He won’t ever have enough. Will we give it to Him? Are we willing to admit and surrender the more that He is calling us into? Are we willing to live a life where we spend our time and energy to repent and return?

The good news is there is always Hope and He has a name! Jeremiah 3:22 leaves us with an incredible promise to hold onto. "Return, o faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness."

Weakness is ok, because it is in those moments when His strength is revealed.

Lord, let that be my hearts cry. Create in me a heart that is quick to course correct when I find something pulling my affections and my attention from You. Help me to be more faithful to You today than I was yesterday and more tomorrow than I was today. Let Your praise ever be on my lips.