Idolatry

In my sociology class we talked about the McDonaldization of society. How we are people of convience and we want what we want when we want it. If you apply that to our spiritual walks more than likely you will see the same thing. We talk to our God only when we need something or have a desire. When we do take things to Him we expect immediate results. When things arent what we expected we get angry and wonder if God really loves us. We take things into our own hands cause we dont get the answer fast enought, or its not the answer we WANT. Yea. Thats pretty crappy of us huh. Maybe you dont ever do this, but I can't lie to you. I do it more often than I would like to admit. I am reading a new book and it seems as though it was written for me. Things I never thought about, but definatly do have been revealed to me. Idolatry is what this book is about. Why do we think we have to have certain things or people in our lives? What do they REALLY mean to us? How far are we willing to go to attain these things? Why are these desires so powerful? Ask yourself these questions. Sometimes we let these desires of our heart consume us and it becomes so strong that it totally messes up our thinking. I have realized that my desire to have godly relationships has become an idol in my life. Granted there is nothing wrong with wanting to surround myself with godly people, it is a blessing and a source of joy BUT it seems as though I have allowed this to take top priority in my life. When we make relationships conditional they are not of God. We cant expect people to bless us because we act a certian way, and we cant only love people when they act the way we would like. If we do the things and act the way we do because we are motivated by God's love then there is no problem. But so often we do them primarily to satisfy our own desires. Idols make us desperate to keep them. We sell ourselves to them, and we believe that the loss of them is an unbearable affliction - a curse even. We become isolated, desperate, sad, hopeless. This is where I have found myself. But there is hope! We can rest knowing Gods grace and mercy is avaliable to us.