"Counterfeit Faith"

"For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images." (Psalms 78:58) What is an idol in your mind? Is it a graven image, something like a statue or molten image that is set up in your home as something you burn incense to, or leave little messages to as prayers? No, I doubt any of us that serve the Lord have such things; but what we do have are habits, habits that take us to a place where we choose certain things or perform certain tasks as a token of chance; maybe even out of superstition that God will bless us differently, or curse us if we don't do things a certain way. I expect some of you don't really get what I mean, because that seems so weird and out of sorts. But truth be told, I am willing to bet that almost every single one of us have practiced it so much all of our lives, we don't even realize that we are doing it; it's so much a part of what we are, that we just have accepted it as second nature. What shoe do you put on first in the morning, your right foot or left? Do you pick up a penny with heads up and leave a penny that is tails up? How about walking under a ladder? If you don't worry about it at all, do you give it a thought, as if to challenge the concept of it's truth? These all seem so trivial, I know, but there are certain aspects to their control over our lives. Just so happens that I named the ones I am familiar with finding myself doing; how I came to do them I do not know. You see, faith is not something that is based upon anything we do or do not do, it is based upon what God can do or does or did. If we are basing our faith upon anything else but the fact that God loves us, then we might be involving our own 'high places' in the relationship; and if that's the case, we are most likely also worshiping a graven image, which is really nothing more than what we think God looks like, or how we think God is when it comes to loving us. This is more critical than we might think. Another good reason that we must remain in the word and not get distracted by other forms of information. There is only one truth, and the devil loves to distract us from that truth...
"Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: "Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 'A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.' And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, 'Don't bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are in bed. I can't help you.' But I tell you this -though he won't do it for friendship's sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11:5-10) NLT