Idols - Sometimes Where You Least Expect

As I mentioned before, I have been blessed with a wonderful congregation that my wife and I attend.  Once a month they hold a "brotherhood" meeting for the men to get together and have some fellowship time. One of the men leads a short devotional and we discuss.  The past meeting, we discussed 1 Samuel 4. 
The ark of the covenant is not something I would typically consider as an "idol."  In this case, the Israelites had been defeated by the Philistines and had lost 4,000 men.  Verse 3 notes that the Israelites were trying to figure out why God had handed them over to the Philistines.  Rather than seeking God or searching out their wrongdoing and confessing it, they turned to the power of the ark of the covenant.  1 Samuel 4:3b says "Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies." (NASB, emphasis mine).  Note that they were looking to the ark itself for salvation from the Philistines.  They were searching for a formula to save them, rather than relying on their God who had brought them out of Egypt.  They turned to the created rather than the creator.

What idols do we have in our lives?  From this passage, I have realized that I need to take a close look at my life and make sure that my trust and hope is in God rather than created things. In the brotherhood small group we discussed things that could take the place of God in our lives.  Good things that we sometimes put in his place.  Sometimes we do this knowingly and other times without thought.  Can the Bible become an idol to us? What about your congregation or teacher?  How often do we spend time being as the Bereans were, searching the scriptures to know that what our teacher tells us is true.  Do we rely on others to feed us and not check the veracity of what is being taught?  When we have problems, do we go to God or do we turn to something else for hope or an answer.

Thoughts?