What is that in your hand?

Isaiah 44:13 The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

As Isaiah is contrasting the places where people put their hope and trust, he uses the typical pagan as an illustration. This man makes his own god. He takes a piece of wood, uses some to carve and idol, which he then bows down to worship, while using the rest of it as firewood to cook his dinner. Afterward, he is "happy" and content, and in Isaiah's words, pretty foolish.  Thus it is with anything we worship, value most, toil over and trust, besides God, our Creator. When we sit here with an electronic device in our hand, or our bank ledger, or TV remote, or the keys to our most expensive possessions, what is it we hold in our hands? Can we hold God in our hands? Not the true God, only a little god with no power to save.