See that no one lead you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, “I am he, and they will lead many astray.”

Mark 13:5

Jesus is prophetically talking about the end times here, prophesying the increase of deception, and the amount of “false saviors” who will claim to be and to do what Jesus does.

The Lord spoke to me this morning and said that while we may not have people popping up on the news claiming “I am Jesus!” or “I am your Savior!”, our lives are not short of that message being shouted to us other than Jesus himself.

You see, at the heart of idolatry, is the failure to recognize that Jesus is all that we need and that he fulfills the deepest desires of our heart. 

Christians may not be deceived when someone obnoxiously comes to them and says, “I am your Jesus!”. But we are deceived when people, addictions, substances, and entertainment implicitly communicate to us, “I am he. I am the one your heart needs.”

The restless and wounded work man who comes home from work and just watches TV all night or drinks–those have become his gods. The lonely and depressed single who looks for love in the wrong places–those are claiming “I will fulfill your needs.” The sex, alcohol, or entertainment addict who acts out whenever they feel stress–those have become his or her gods.

All these are saying, “I am your present savior, I am your substitute savior, I will fill your needs.” And what they won’t say is that “…and I will leave you empty.”

We don’t need to be living in the end times to encounter false Christs. We merely need to look at our lives to see what ways our the deepest needs of our hearts not being fulfilled by the God who formed our hearts. Our addictions, our poor habits, the way we deal with emotional trauma–these are all telltale signs of who is our God.

And by the way we feed our hearts is how true this message is to our God: “You are all I need, you are all I will ever need, Jesus.”

Lord, may the deepest recesses of my heart be met by the power and the pervasiveness of your love today and forevermore. Amen.