Like a butter spread thin, that's how idolatry can fulfill our utmost longing

bring bread and butter to make the illustration real

Most people spend their lives trying to make their heart’s fondest dreams come true. Isn’t that what life is all about, ‘the pursuit of happiness’? We search endlessly for ways to acquire the things we desire, and we are willing to sacrifice much to achieve them. We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.

…If we look to some created thing to give us the meaning, hope and happiness that only God himself can give, it will eventually fail to deliver and break our hearts.

The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. in the "and" lies our great woe. If we omit the "and" we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.

AW Tozer, Pursuit of God, Location 153

Our lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.

AW Tozer, Pursuit of God, Location 252

I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was his still to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation

Pursuit of God, AW Tozer, Location 243

There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets "things" with a deep and fierce passion. Ht pronouns "my" and "mine" look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant.  .... God's gift now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution

The pursuit of God, AW Tozer, the blessedness of possessing nothing, location 192

If I may speak my own experience, I find that to keep my eye simply on Christ, as my peace and my life, is by far the hardest part of my calling. It seems easier to deny self in a thousand instances of outward conduct, than in its ceaseless endeavors to act as a principle of righteousness and power

 John Newton (Counterfeit Gods, pg 176)

The man or woman who knows the difference that Newton refers to - the difference between obeying rules of outward conduct rather than setting your heart on Christ as your peace and your life - is on the road to freedom from the counterfeit gods that control us. 

- Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 177 - 

Mature Christians are not people who have completely hit the bedrock. I do not believe that is possible in this life. Rather, they are people who know how to keep drilling and are getting closer and closer 

- Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 176 - 

"Setting the mind and heart on things above" where "your life is hid with Christ in God" means appreciation, rejoicing and resting in what Jesus has done for you. it entails joyful worship, a sense of God's reality in prayer. Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol. That is what will replace your counterfeit gods. 

- Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 172 - 

Your religion is what you do with your solitude

Archbishop William Temple, Counterfeit Gods, pg 168

The human heart is indeed a factory that mass produces idols 

- Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 155 - 

The main sign that we are into success idolatry, however, is that we find we cannot maintain our self confidence in life unless we remain at the top of our chosen field.

 - Tim Keller,  Counterfeit Gods, pg 76 -

Achievements is the alcohol of our time. These days, the best people don't abuse alcohol. They abuse their lives. You're successful, so good things happen. You complete a project, and you feel dynamite. That feeling doesn't last forever, and you slide back to normal. You think, I've got to start a new project - which is still normal. But you love the feeling of euphoria, so you've got to have it again. The problem is, you can't stay on that high

Mary Bell

For Jesus, greed is not only love of money, but excessive anxiety about it.

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 56

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world

C.S. Lewis

Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which nor marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and the scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.

C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

You don't realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.