Remember that story in Exodus where the Israelites melt down their personal gold to form a god-calf?  Have you ever thought to yourself, “That’s ridiculous! Why in the world would they have even considered that”?

However, we might want to drop our stones.

God’s people had seen Him move in miraculous ways. They had witnessed His faithfulness when He:

spared them from the plagues

delivered them from Pharoah

divided the Red Sea

provided manna and quail

supplied water from a rock

But when they perceived Moses’ mountain top conference with God was stretching too far into overtime, their impatience and unmet expectations caused them to clock out and run to Aaron demanding a different god lead them.

It really does sound foolish – until we realize we often do the same.

When God doesn’t move as quickly or as clearly as we want, we, too, can turn to modern-day idols: money, comfort, people, food, entertainment, social media, or success – just to name a few. We rely on these things to secure our identity, soothe our anxiety, and give us control.

The truth is, idolatry isn’t always about golden statues. 

It’s about misplaced trust.

So maybe we do have some gold clinging to our fingertips after all.

My challenge for us today is to spend time in intentional prayer, asking God to gently uncover the areas in our lives where we’ve shifted our trust away from Him and towards other things. He is always faithful to reveal what needs to be surrendered.