Whether consciously or subconsciously we spend much of our lives trying to make our hearts fondest wishes or dreams come true. Not many people ever imagine that getting our hearts desire might actually be the worst thing that can happen. Why could getting your hearts desire - ever be a disaster? Because our hearts turn these desires into idols - we take good things - given to us for enjoyment in our lives and shape or distort them into ultimate things - we make them our entire lives and they turn out disatrous - because they dont have the power to fulfill.
The Apostle Paul sums up most of our human history when he writes - “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” and so God gave humanity “over to their hearts desires” and without God’s intervention - that “thing” will never satisfy.
The bible is actually filled with story after story of the multitude of ways and effects of idol worship. Every “little g” God that our hearts can choose - love, money, success, power has a biblical narrative that shows how that particular idol subtly works itself into our hearts and minds. Today we’re going to see how subtly something really wonderful became an idol in the life of Abraham - one of the central figures in the bible named Abraham and how God rescued them both.
