Sometimes what we think is so innocent is actually displeasing to Christ.
When I lived in Kentucky a young man approached me, excited about the new bracelet he had. The bracelet was a "What Would Jesus Do" bracelet. These objects were being given out in a Baptist church in our town, nearly every teenager who attended church had one. It was the new symbol of righteousness.
The young man of whom I speak, began to tell me all the things about the bracelet that were helpful to him in his Christian walk.
As he talked, my mind began to wonder back to my Catholic days when we used "rosery beads" to communicate with Mary and the Father. Of course we were not communicating with the real Mary or the real Father, but idols in our own minds.
After listening to the young man I began to ask him questions. The first question was "What exactly does that bracelet do for you." His response was that it reminded him of how he should act as a Christian. I said "what else does it do for you?" He began to list the things that this little thin bracelet made our of string did for him.
He said it helped him focus on Christ, it was a tool to help him witness to others, reminds him of what Christ did for him, helps him remember what to say to people, and some other things I can't remember.
When he was finished I told him that all the things he was attributing to the bracelet, were what he should be trusting the Holy Spirit for.
I told him that you are trusting that bracelet instead of the Holy Spirit that lives in you, that makes that pile of string more important than the Holy Spirit and that it was an idol.
I explained to him that when I became born again I threw away all objects that "helped me do anything", and began trusting Christ alone.
So often we, as human beings, have trouble trusting Christ, we feel a need to see something with our eyes, touch something with our hands, even taste things, this is not faith.
Idols are anything that we place our trust in, on any level, or use to remind us of Christ. Objects have no value except to addict us to them.
2 Corinthians 5:7 "(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)"
Christ wants our full attention on Him. His Word, the Bible is our instruction book, other than that we have need of no other objects to help us, as though they can be more helpful than the Holy Spirit.
Jewelry used as a Holy Spirit substitute, does not help us, it hinders us, destroys our trust in Christ, as do pictures of Christ or any other art object that we love.
Those who truly walk by faith, and speak with the Holy Spirit often, have no need of these things.
How could we compare the living, powerful and personal Holy Spirit to a dead lifeless object? How very sill we are!
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