II Kings 17:33 They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.
I have often preached how the nation of Israel in the Old Testament would leave their faith in God and begin to worship the idols of the nations around them. While that was often the case, the above verse reveals something much more likely to occur in our lives. We attempt to worship God AND idols. We think we can somehow do both.
We worship God on Sundays. We go to church and read His precious Word. We tell others we are a Christian and we try our best to serve Him. Then, somehow in our own humanistic wisdom, we begin to value something more than God. We begin to place more faith in our 401k or in the stock market. We begin to make hobbies or relationships more important than our walk with God. We find that we are spending more time meditating on things other than God. We find we are falling into the same pattern described in II Kings 17:33: they feared the Lord, and served their own gods…
Always look forward to your message; not because they “tickle the ears”, but because they are challenging and worth thinking on.