(This article also includes a podcast discussion. Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen on your Apple or Google podcast app.)
For many, our salvation story tends to involve a point in life where we realized everything else had failed us. Whether we tried to find satisfaction in work, relationships, or entertainment, Christ often finds us when we are most in need of the only One who can truly satisfy us. And even after salvation, we still find ourselves running back to Him when we realize we’ve put our hope and trust in something that cannot last.
As we study and understand more of God’s word, we realize that all of this boils down to idolatry. Idolatry isn’t just praying to statues, but anything that we turn to for comfort, purpose, satisfaction, or salvation from suffering instead of God. That’s why things like TV, social media, a spouse, or our job can become an idol. They take our focus off of what’s truly important and distract us with things that, ultimately, will fail us.
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
Understanding that, it’s easy to see how idolatry can hurt our walk with Christ. However, there’s another way that idolatry stops us from loving Christ, and it’s a way that most of us don’t realize. While we’re always watching for idols that pull us away from Him, we don’t see that idols are the very reason we don’t fully surrender to Him in the first place.
Dog drool and conditioning
There’s a famous scientist named Ivan Pavlov who conducted an interesting experiment. Pavlov would always ring a bell before feeding his dog. At first, the dog would, of course, drool as soon as its food was set down in front of it, taking almost no notice of the bell.
However, over time the dog linked the sound with what always followed. Soon, the dog was drooling as soon as it heard the bell, because it knew exactly what would happen after hearing that sound. In time, Pavlov could make the dog drool simply by the sound of a bell, because the dog’s mind had linked the sound of ding with its need to eat being met.
To see a humorous version of this experiment, check out a clip of a TV show called “The Office.”
What does this have to do with idolatry? Surprisingly, everything.
God created us to live by patterns. We form habits and create associations based on our experience. A lot of how we understand truth is based on what’s happened to us in the past (for example, those with abusive fathers naturally assume that’s what fathers are like).
This is called “conditioning.” We, as people, are trained by every area of our lives to believe a certain truth. This is why things like propaganda are so powerful – the more people are exposed to something, the more they’ll believe it’s true. It’s why soldiers returning from war react a certain way to loud noises in the night – not because the noises themselves are dangerous, but because their minds have been trained to expect something when they hear that noise.
Conditioned to doubt Christ
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14)
When we understand how everything in our lives contributes to our view of truth, we can start using it to glorify God by what we surround ourselves with. It lets us better appreciate how watchful we need to be, and how easily we are persuaded away from truth by things that seem good. In the end, it lets us appreciate what it means to love God with our minds.
Consider what a lifetime of idolatry conditions us to believe. Although idols come in countless forms, there’s a very simple process we always go through:
- Find something that we think will finally satisfy us
- Enjoy that thing for a while
- Find ways it doesn’t fully meet our needs or expectations
- Find a new thing
Why do people “fall out of love”? Why does that exciting job eventually become unsatisfying? Why do we constantly seek validation from others?
Because we rely on these things to bring us ultimate satisfaction. By doing that, we put an expectation on them that they can never meet. Because they can’t bring ultimate satisfaction, they must fail us. And when they fail, we’re forced to find that satisfaction elsewhere, hoping that this time, we’ll find something that lasts.
Now consider spending a lifetime doing that. Over and over again, learning that the things you’re seeking will ultimately fail you. No matter how good they are, or how happy they make us for a time… they will ultimately let us down.
Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)
You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:11)
And then there’s Christ. We know He is perfect and unable to fail. We know He saves us with a purpose, and that there’s no end to the joy found in following Him.
And yet we don’t. At least not always. We may have times of great passion and nearness with Him, only to see it fade for a time.
Is this because Christ is failing us? Should we view Him in the same way we view all those other imperfect things that ultimately fail to satisfy us?
Go back to Pavlov’s dog and how we’ve likewise been conditioned through our idols.
- We find something that brings satisfaction
- That thing fails us
- We find something else that brings satisfaction
- That thing fails us
We’ve spent years learning that it’s dangerous to put too much hope in something. We hear the ding of a new satisfaction entering our lives, yet we know it will end up letting us down. So while we may throw all we have into it, as soon as it starts to fail us we’re ready to jump to the next thing to fill the void we feel.
So why don’t we fully surrender to Christ? Why don’t we fully take Him at His word? Why are we so easily swayed to another idol that we know will fail us?
Without realizing it, perhaps we expect Christ to fail us as well. We may be too conditioned to carry a seed of doubt and hesitation about anything that promises us the ultimate answer. We don’t fully commit to Him because if He fails after we give Him everything, then everything fails.
And so we don’t give Christ our everything. We give Him most of ourselves, but we don’t have enough trust to surrender certain parts of our lives. We believe that He is worth it, but in the back of our minds we may worry that we’ll regret it, like we’ve regretted other things we’ve placed our hope in.
He’s worth it
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
As a follower of Jesus Christ, we know He deserves everything. There’s no part of our lives we’d ever regret surrendering to Him. Doubt may come, and we may still be drawn to idols, but as life goes on we’ll find the Holy Spirit drawing us to Him more and more.
It can be a huge step to recognize just how much we’ve been conditioned by our own sinful hearts. If a lifetime of idolatry has taught us that nothing will ultimately satisfy us, it can be easy to apply that to the only One who can never fail. But as we see just how deep our sin runs, we find more areas to rely on His grace. We see even more places where we are weak and can do nothing without His strength.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
The world has formed our minds to think one way. It’s not only conditioned us to pursue idols to satisfy us, but those very idols make us forget the glory and majesty of God. It makes us doubt His worthiness by causing us to trust Him most of the way, rather than fully devoting our entire lives to serving Him.
However, it’s not up to us to do better and transform our own thinking. It’s only the Holy Spirit who must do the transforming – only He can overcome the depth of our wicked, idol-loving hearts and set our minds on Christ. The more we turn to Him, the less we’ll be tempted to turn to idols. And the less we turn to idols, the more we’ll see why Jesus Christ must be the ultimate desire of our hearts.
He, alone, is the only satisfaction that can never fail.
