I am a cheater. I have cheated on the one who has given me life, the one who has sacrificed for me. The one who has loved me unconditionally. This realization brought me to my knees in shame and made me dwell in the hopelessness that I will continuously cheat on God. But as I wrestled with this self-realization about my sinful nature in contrast to God’s perfect nature, God’s true character was revealed to me. And along with learning more about His character, I learned deeper truths about my relationship with God and a clear picture of what that relationship should look like.

I was reading one of the most convicting books I have ever read, "Idol Lies: Facing the Truth about our Deepest Desires," by Dee Brestin, when the character of God and the nature of our relationship to Him was so powerfully revealed to me. The book discusses idols in our lives, relating them to weighty stones on our hearts, and how Jesus is the stonecutter. He alone can cut those replacements of Him out of our hearts, so we might enter a deeper, more eternal relationship with Him. Chapter 5, titled “Our Cheating Hearts” brought a revelation into my life about my own idols and how I had fallen prey to the lie that my idols could rescue me. The truth however is that my idols, the things I put in place of God, will actually destroy me.

See, when we worship idols (money, control, relationships, talent, acceptance, etc.) we are cheating on God. Jeremiah paints a clear picture of a bride who is so in love with her husband, she follows him anywhere. Her devotion as a newly wed was unbreakable. This small picture revealed the bigger picture of our relationship to God being like a marriage. The “honeymoon” phase at the beginning of a marriage is similar to when we first decide to follow God as our personal savior. The love is overwhelming and perfect; nothing seems better or more fulfilling. But then life creeps into the relationship, problems arise and doubts set in. The love that once seemed so fulfilling now seems fleeting and you turn to other things. You begin to love someone other than the one you promised yourself to. We are no longer content and we think attaining different goals will satisfy. If I only had ­_____, then I would be happy. We get caught in a slavery that binds us to the temporary, to whatever brings us happiness the fastest.

But God is wondering what's wrong with what we found in Him? What happened to the love that had us following Him wherever? It could be that we lose sight of His character. Dee Brestin suggests the idea maybe we desire God’s “presents” over his “presence.” “We love God for what He can give us, and not for His beauty” (81). She boldly says, “ If you love someone for who He is and not for what he can give you, then you are willing to sacrifice. But if you don’t love him for him, then sacrifice feels like slavery and you look elsewhere for satisfaction” (82). A bride commits adultery when turning to other men for love and forgetting the character of the man she vowed to stay faithful to. When we turn to other satisfactions, other loves, we are essentially cheating on God. We are committing adultery on the one we promised our life to and put our trust in. The one we said we would follow wherever. This idolatry and adultery breaks Gods’ heart because He loved us unconditionally, yet we turned our backs and we continuously turn our backs. But in Brestin’s words, “realizing that our idolatry breaks God’s heart is an important step toward returning to the One who saves us” (83). Faithfulness is of utmost importance in our relationship to God because that is what we vowed to when becoming his “bride.” Relinquishing power and control to our idols gives the enemy a foothold and opens the door to a beast that is very hard to kill. But that is not the life the Lord wants for us. As the bride of Christ, we must be faithful and keep to our vow of following Him. Just like the picture of a long and beautiful marriage, one full of trust and security, so will our relationship be with God. And what an exquisite and fulfilling life that will bring us.