I've been doing a Bible study in I Samuel for what free time I have.

In it, we see the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant. They moved it from Israel to one of their cities, and set it up in a shrine next to an idol to a false god, Dagon. When they opened the shrine the next day, they found that the idol of Dagon was lying face down in front of the Ark. So basically it was in a worshipful position before the ark of the Lord. The Philistines promptly propped it back up. The next day, they opened the shrine, and the idol was face down in front of the Ark again, but this time it's hands and head were severed. God then started wreaking havoc among the locals. The Philistines recognized that their idol had no power over God, and eventually allowed the Ark to return to it's rightful place. Many of the Israelite people saw the Philistines get wrecked, and promptly turned from idolatry.

So to recount, Some of the Israelite people had begun worshiping idols of Dagon, so God went in and summarily executed Dagon to prove a point. We should also note that in receiving the Ark back, a number of the people along the way were struck down as well. A smart man who professes the Lord might just want to identify his idols and remove them before God takes it upon himself. Jesus speaks a bit about this in Matthew 6:24:

>No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?"

Here, he's encouraging people not to fall into the trap of idolizing money, but you can swap in just about anything a person might prioritize over God. It doesn't have to be a stone carving, it could even be a concept. I'd argue that even oneitis could be a form of idolatry. As has been pointed out by one of my brothers in christ, a smart phone is a modern idol.

So how does one do it? The best way, in my opinion, is to just go cold turkey. Note that when Josiah wanted to end idolatry, he didn't just take down the idols, he smashed them outright and destroyed the altars. Many times when the children of God sacked cities, they were instructed to physically destroy the idols they found there and not to take them as loot. So not only making sure the practice was stopped, but making sure there was no way to slip back into those practices later. Now a bunch of the junkies I've dealt with have a critical problem with this approach, though. They can't exactly physically destroy their idol. Again, Oneitis is much the same. So the cure most take is to destroy what they have on hand, then physically remove themselves from it's presence. They have to be very vigilant, however, as the craving is always there trying to lure them back.