Idols

I have been reading in I Kings and II Kings over the past few weeks. Last night I was captured by a repeated phase "And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.  However the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places."

These kings did right in the sight of the Lord, but they still held on to ways that were not of God.  I thought about how this reflects the culture that we live in, even in the church.  We do what is right in the sight of the Lord, we read the Word, pray, attend church, give to those in need, tithe.  The things most people see as "Christian."  If we are compared to others, we are doing right, but the truth is , there are areas in our lives that are not in line with what God has for us.  

Those high places offered sacrifices to false god's - god's of greed, success, pleasure, sex, selfishness.  These are the same things that we covet in our society today.  We may not have a golden image that we offer incense and sacrifices too, but we worship these things still the same.  We put these things before God and then blame Him when things do not work out the way that we want them too in those areas.  

It is time that we put God first in every area of our life.  We must stop seeking after things that only bring temporal fulfillment and then leave us feeling empty again.  We must line up every area of our life, those seen by men and those not that are not seen, the high places that are "out of sight, out of mind" and walk in the ways of our Father.