think rightly about God

"the man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. that mighty burden is his obligation to God. it includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey him perfectly, and to worship him acceptably. and when the man's laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear.
the gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. but unless the weight of the burden is felt the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.

...let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idiolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. the essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him...

...then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. but this series of degrading acts began in the mind. wrong ideas about God are not only the foundation from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow, they are themselves idolatrous. the idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true."

from tozer's knowledge of the holy

i know this is a little laborious reading all this, but I do think it is worth it. what is our view of God? how does that affect our worship to him and our relationship to him?

i too thought that idolatry was just done in the "old days" with people bowing down to fat stone people or feeding tombstones.

but how many times do we as Christians think wrongly about God and then act on those assumptions based on our erroneous preconceived ideas? it is an easy trap to fall into.

that is where the body of Christ comes in. fellow believers helping one another. hold up the correct view of God. realize that this is a reality. build one another up in the truth about God. be an encouragement to those around you and thus creating and maintaining a right standing relationship with fellow believers and with God our Father.