Judges 17-18

I was just reading this passage during my quiet time. Micah takes his mother's silver and makes him an idol and all sorts of other items that he thinks are going to help him worship God. He even thinks that God will be more pleased with him because he has a Levite in his house to serve as a priest in his little shrine. In chapter 18 a bunch of Danites come in and steal Micah's idols and talk his priest into going with them and when Micah catches up with them he says "You took the gods I had made and the priest and went away, what do I have left?"

Micah was confused about how he should worship God. He thought that he needed to have idols and all of these other things in order for God to be pleased with him. Our God does not dwell in temples and shrines made by human hands, but in the hearts of those who believe in him. I was thinking about this and as I've been reading through Judges I noticed that God usually identifies Himself with something like this "I am the God of your fathers, the one who led them out of Egypt and was with them in the desert for eighty years." God wants us to love him and worship him for who He is and for what He's done, not because of what he looks like or what he's going to do if we only act a certain way.

Are there any things in your life that you are using to serve God but are actually pushing you farther away from him? I could think of a few in my life and it is easy especially for someone who's involved in ministry to let this happen. If so, it's time to repent and give those things to God before someone comes along and takes them away.