When I first began to research the biblical history of captivity among God's people, I kept running into a conspicuous common denominator: idolatry.  I don't know why it was such a news flash.  God warned his people over and over that if they did not resist the false gods of the nations surrounding them they would be snared, and He would ultimately allow them to be taken captive.  They didn't and He did.  One sobering thing about the faithfulness of God is that He keeps His promises, even when they are promises of judgment and discipline.  The Book of Isaiah constantly seems to plead the question, "Why in the world would you worship idols when you have been chosen by the sovereign God of the universe to be His own?" Isaiah 43:10-12 packs a powerful punch:

          "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD,
"and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no God was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "that I am God."

You and I as believers in Christ have also been chosen to know and believe and understand that He is God.  Our lives have been sanctified by the one true God.  Heaven is His throne.  Earth is His footstool.  Awesome creatures never cease day or night singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!"  Lightning flashes from His throne.  The winds do His bidding.  The clouds are His chariot.  The earth trembles at the sound of His voice.  When He stands to His feet, His enemies are scattered.  He is transcendent over all things.  Absolute.  Uncontested.  Omniscient.  Omnipresent.  The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.  He is God and there is no other.

And yet this very One is our Father.  Our Abba.  He demands, deserves, our respect.  Without it, for all practical purposes, we are powerless.  Consider the captivity of the Israelites that followed their idolatry.  Isn't it true that we invite personal captivity to sin when our minds, hearts and lives do not give an accurate appraisal of God?

Virtually every kind of stronghold, or unholy fortress of sin, involves the worship of some kind of idol.  For instance, the stronghold of pride is associated with the worship of self.  The stronghold of addiction is often associated with the worship of a substance or habit.  In one way or another, something else has become "god" in our lives: the object of our chief focus.  Until we turn from our idols to the one true God, we will never find liberty, for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor. 3:17).  One missing link in almost every captive life is the spirit of God's lordship.

As long as our minds rehearse the strength of our stronghold more than the strength of our God, we will be impotent.  We must believe that in our weakness He is strong and that as we bend the knee to His lordship, God is more than able to deliver us.

Reading passages of Scripture like Isaiah 43 may force us to realize that our perception of God is something that we have conjured up and not the one true God at all.

The truth may be that we've carved a "God" out of our own image, assigned Him the utmost and noblest of human characteristics, unintentionally envisioning Him to be more of a "superhuman" than the sovereign El Elyon—The Most High God.  

Praise be to You, oh sovereign God.  You are worthy.  Please reveal to me through Your Word, my prayer time or any other means necessary, where idolatry exists in my life so that I may accurately praise You and live in freedom from sin's captivity.  I confess that You made me in Your image, and I cannot make You into the image of man.  Let my eyes see You as You truly are.  In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Adapted from Praying God's Word, by Beth Moore, pages 19-21. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000. Used by permission.