Skip to content ↓

The Number One Reason We Struggle Overcoming Sin

Sponsored Collection cover image

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


  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 18)

    A La Carte: Good cop bad cop in the home / What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? / The sacrifices of virtual church / A neglected discipleship tool / A NT passage that’s older than the NT / Quite … able to communicate / and more.

  • a One-Talent Christian

    It’s Okay To Be a Two-Talent Christian

    It is for good reason that we have both the concept and the word average. To be average is to be typical, to be—when measured against points of comparison—rather unremarkable. It’s a truism that most of us are, in most ways, average. The average one of us is of average ability, has average looks, will…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 17)

    A La Carte: GenZ and the draw to serious faith / Your faith is secondhand / It’s just a distraction / You don’t need a bucket list / The story we keep telling / Before cancer, death was just other people’s reality / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 16)

    A La Carte: Why I went cold turkey on political theology / Courage for those with unfatherly fathers / What to expect when a loved one enters hospice / Five things to know about panic attacks / Lessons learned from a wolf attack / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Night Is Far Gone

    The Night Is Far Gone

    There are few things in life more shameful than sleeping when you ought to be working, or slacking off when you ought to be diligent. When your calling is to be active, it is inappropriate and even sinful to remain passive. This is especially true when it comes to contexts that are of the highest…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 15)

    A La Carte: Personal reflections on the 2024 eclipse / New earth books / 7 questions that teens need to answer / Was there really no death before the fall? / How to be humble instead of looking humble / Kindle deals / and more.