[Idols] must be borne up on shoulders,

  carried as burdens by the weary.

They stoop and bow down together;

  unable to save those who bear them...

Things haven't changed within the human heart in the 2,700 years since Isaiah wrote this prophecy.  In the West we don't have idols that we fashion from gold into statues we worship.  But we have people we turn into idols.  We make idols out of our jobs, our loved ones, our children.  We turn money into an idol which we look toward for helping us out of trouble or increasing our joy in this life.  We idoliz positions of power and influence at work so we may be secure.  We turn physical bodies into idols - the cult of the body.  We idolize youth and health.

We have built an entire culture and society which is godless.  But because man cannot live without worship this has not led to a world without gods but rather has seen a profusion of them.  The unbridled passions in men's hearts have seen fit to make mini-idols of everything from electronic goods to sports teams.  Is this an exaggeration?  Is there a litmus test we can use to ferret out the idols in our heart?  Absolutely.  What do you look to for hope and joy that continually slips through your grasp, fails to satisfy, and instead of liberating is actually a burden?  One person will maintain a false personality so that others will like them.  Another believes that when a certain monetary sum is saved then they "will be free."  We even use the language of gods.  "Oh I just worship my children."  "I idolize that person."  "If one has their health they have everything."  The language of love, devotion, freedom, truth and liberation which should be reserved for God alone we apply to many things except him.  To God we reserve the word "Judge."

We were created to be free - completely free, with a liberation that few souls have ever experienced.  But, in what we sadly view as a paradox in our times, to be free we must obey the fundamental law of God which he established out of love.  The very first law is "you shall have no other gods before me."

Identify an idol today.  What are you carrying around on your shoulders as a burden?  What are you looking to for your happiness?  In what have you put your hope?  Then transfer your burden, hope, happiness and expectation to God.  Ask his forgiveness.  Repeat this process tomorrow.  Let them fall one by one.