United Church of Christ Daily Devotional 22nd August 2025 Friday Message
What’s on Your List?.
By Talitha Arnold
Dear children, keep yourself from idols. – 1 John 5:21 (NIV)
What are your idols?
Please support 5dailydevotional.com so we can continue publishing impactful and uplifting content daily. GIVE HERE
What do you give your time, energy, or homage to?
Since a preacher shouldn’t ask any question she’s not willing to answer herself, here’s a (partial) list of my idols:
- *wanting to be liked;
- *not wanting to disappoint;
- *making sure everyone is happy.
That’s only the beginning. I have other idols, most having to do with numbers. Church size. Dress size. Articles written. Articles published.
What’s on your list?
Perhaps John’s admonishment was only against statues of gold or silver. But the first Christians were people like us, so he might have been warning them about our kinds of idols, too.
John’s words echo the wisdom of Rev. Dr. Reuben Sheares, one of the saints of the UCC. Years ago, preaching at my installation at the church I still serve, Sheares reminded the congregation (and its new pastor) why we come to church every Sunday. “All week long,” he said, “we’re seduced to worship all the little mini-gods of our lives. Sunday mornings, we come to remember the one true God.”
Making a list of our idols is the first step. Turning them over to the real God is the next. “This is the boldness we have in God,” John affirmed in his letter, “that if we ask anything according to God’s will, God will hear us.” For, John concluded, “God is the true God and eternal life.”
A footnote to the passage says, “Some ancient authorities add ‘Amen.’” I know Reuben Sheares would have.
Prayer
Help us, Lord, to be honest about our idols—the mini-gods that seduce us. Thank you for the people who remind us that You alone are the only One worth giving our lives to. Amen.
About the AuthorTalitha Arnold is Senior Minister of the United Church of Santa Fe (UCC), Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is the author of Mark Parts 1 and 2 of the Listen Up! Bible Study series and Worship for Vital Congregations.
