In 2017, I went on what has been the best trip I have ever done. I went with my dad and a friend mountain biking for one week in Europe. The plan was to wake up every day at 5 am, get on our bikes and ride through the mountains and towns until we got to our next destination in the evening of that day. To guide us through the mountains there were yellow arrows every 300 to 600 feet. On the third day of our journey, four to five hours into riding, there was a car very conveniently parked right where the yellow arrow was indicating us to turn. Of course, we did not turn but rather continued going straight up the wrong mountain. I hate that mountain. We rode and pedaled up for hours hoping that soon we would find an arrow until we came to our senses and decided to use what we had sworn not to use during the trip… technology. Of course, we were way off and completely had to completely change direction to get to our destination.

In Jeremiah 1:11 God asks a rhetorical question through Jeremiah, “Has a nation ever changed its gods?” The answer is no. He continues, “(yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.” None of the nations that have fake gods, gods of stone or wood, turn their backs on their gods, but the one nation that has the one true God decides to turn their backs on Him. Yet when they truly need God they turn and ask Him to save them. But God knows their hearts, “In spite of all this… Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 3:10

We have all changed God at one point or another in our lives. We have turned to things made of wood and stone and have allowed them to become the center of our lives. It is not enough to turn to God in pretense, you have to return with your whole heart. If we did not completely change directions when we were mountain biking in the wrong direction, we never would have arrived at our destination. God is calling you to turn from your idols and return to Him. He is the one true God.