Keep Yourself from Idols

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” 1 John 5:21 NKJV

In an article titled “We Estimated How Many Miles Taylor Swift Covered in Her Treadmill Workout” published Tuesday, the writer said: When Taylor Swift told TIME, who named her Person of the Year, that she trained for her Eras Tour by singing the entire setlist while running on a treadmill every day for six months before the tour started, we runners had to know: So how far did Swift go? Swift, who’s known for running “as fast as [she] can,” said she ran “fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs.” Unfortunately she didn’t lay out specific paces, and we did try to find her on Strava. (There are a bunch of Taylor Swifts who log their workouts on the app, by the way.) They then “crunched some numbers just for fun” and estimated that she covered about 16 miles in her workouts. Further estimating the amount of time it took to gather these calculations, it’s easy to see that even Runner’s World has an unhealthy obsession with Taylor Swift, an entertainer whose music and influence is anything but holy. 

And you know, when it comes to obsessing over people or possessions to the point that we allow the pursuit of them to rival, reduce or surpass our devotion to God (who we are commanded to love with ALL of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength), we are in violation of the command to worship the Lord our God only and in grave danger of being led astray. In fact, in the final verse of 1 John, we are given this strict warning… “keep yourselves from idols.” And we do this by striving to know and love Jesus Christ more than anything, purposefully taking up our crosses daily to follow Him and to be fully content in Him. You see, Jesus is the only One who can provide the happiness our hearts crave—something we lose sight of when we seek worldly pleasures and entertainment above true joy and contentment. 

So in the words of D.L. Moody, remember this my friend… “You don't have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you love more than God is your idol.” Endeavor to love the Lord your God only so that you won’t fall into the trap of idol worship, or allow your household to do it either. 

Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder that idol worship can take many forms. Help us to identify idols in our lives by discerning what we spend most of our money on, what we give most of our time to, and what consumes the majority of our thoughts. If it’s anything but You, help us to immediately repent and wholeheartedly return to You. It’s in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen. 

Happy Running!