Ezekiel 14 is an astonishing chapter that impacts and convicts me every time I read it. Why? God addressed the hearts of some of the leaders of Israel. Leaders are to lead us into righteousness not defilement.

Verse 4 says, “…Everyone…who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols.” In verse 6 He called them abominations. Verse 11 says that the idols cause us to stray from the Lord, and they profane Him. Profane means to treat something sacred with irreverence or contempt.

Heart-idols are crowders. They crowd out the Lord’s rightful place of wholehearted worship. They are flesh-idols that we turn to rather than the Lord.

Earlier this morning I was meditating on Psalm 63:8 in the Amplified. It says, “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.”

This verse is an anchor verse for me. I have seen it through the eyes of desperation. This morning He showed me something else. It is clinging together with Him in a love embrace. It has given me new meaning to Deuteronomy 6:5. It says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Heart-idols separate us from our love-embrace with the Lord. They fill our flesh needs, but leave us spiritually empty. They are deceptions in our mind. They are figments of our imagination. No heart-idol can satisfy our deepest longings. They are just a temporary fix, like a drug addict’s fix. Momentary high.

Psalm 107:9 says, “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who trusts in Him.”

Heart-idols lead us into self. When we ‘need’ if we will drink deeply of His love, He will be our Fulfiller and Satisfier. Then we will echo David’s heart-words in Psalm 18:1. It says, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength.”