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The Number One Reason We Struggle Overcoming Sin

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Idols of the Heart How many times have you wondered, “Why is being holy such a battle? It seems I start to get things right, and then all my good intentions go flying out the window. Why can’t I get over this (whatever this is) and start living the way I know God wants me to?”

The answer is, we have hearts that are torn between the love and worship of God and the love and worship of the world.

Idols of the Heart is written for those of you who desire to live a godly life and yet find yourself in a recurrently disappointing struggle against habitual sin and a lack of undivided love.

This book is written for you who find yourself constantly tripping over the same bad habit, the same embarrassing weakness, the same sinful slavery that you hoped to be free of years ago.

In Idols of the Heart you’ll learn that idolatry—love gone wrong—lies at the heart of every besetting sin that we struggle with.

Even though we don’t bow down to stone statues or make bowls of food to set before our gods, we worship idols in other ways. Idols aren’t just stone statues. No, idols are the loves, thoughts, desires, longings, and expectations that we worship in the place of the true God. They are the things that we invest our identity in; they are what we trust.

Idols cause us to disregard our Heavenly Father in search of what we think we need. Our idols are our loves—gone—wrong: all those things we love more than we love Him, the things we trust for our righteousness or “okay-ness.”

Yet God loves his people and can use even our messy lives and struggles for his glory. In Idols of the Heart, Elyse Fitzpatrick shows us how to better study and know our hearts, long for our gracious Savior, and resist and crush our false gods.

If you’re ready to begin your study, P&R has put together a free devotional adapted from Idols of the Heart. Join Elyse Fitzpatrick as she walks us through the three facets of the heart, how our heart disease keeps us from obedience, and where to find God’s grace in our struggle with sin.

Idols of the Heart


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