NO OTHER GODS

NO OTHER GODS

Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words: 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.3 "You shall have no other gods before me.”

When God handed Moses a list of ten commandments, it was not just a random bunch of orders for us to follow. God never does anything randomly. He always has purpose in what He says, how He says it and the order in which He says it. And since God is perfect in His order of things, it was no coincidence that the first commandment would also be the foremost commandment.

If we expect to live a life of faith, to experience God in the way He desires, to see God work through us, to understand the blessings, the tests and the mercies of God, we need to heed the foremost commandment. The other nine are meaningless if we skip the first.

To understand the importance of having no other gods before The God of creation, we only need to look into the lives of the Israelites. Time after time, the nation of Israel would worship and bow down to other gods. And time after time God would deal with them according to His perfect judgment along with His perfect mercy.

At the same time, it’s easy for me to justify myself if I look at the surface of Israel’s failings. After all, I’ve never bowed down to Baal. I’ve never gone off the deep end and built a bull out of gold in order to worship it. I’ve never found myself tempted to worship the sun or moon gods. So I’m doing pretty good and not worshiping the other gods that many others may have followed. Yeah, like a lot of things in life, it’s not difficult for us to find ways to justify our actions. It’s been that way since the Garden of Eden.

However, when it comes to putting God, the true God of creation before all else, there is something we need to grasp – He must be first and foremost in every aspect of our life. When God commands that He be first, He’s not just referring to idols made of wood and metal. He desires to be Lord of all that we are. And that includes the things we cherish the most – yes, even our loved ones.

Recently, I heard about an article on The Barna Group website concerning a recent survey of America’s priorities. The statistics showed that the number one priority in the life of an average American was family (51%). To be honest, that’s great – perhaps you might even think that’s biblical

The troubling aspect of America’s priorities was where faith entered their lives. While faith actually placed second in the poll, only 16% of Americans felt that faith should be the first priority. Family is important. Many things in life are important. But when anything in our lives takes top priority over our faith in God trouble is looming.

You may think I’m a little off base with this whole issue, but I deeply believe that we can make idols of anything in our lives. More importantly, when we placed God above all else – yes, even our family – not only will God take His right place in our lives, but our relationships will be right also.

The idea is this – when we love God above all else, then and only then, are we able to love others with God like love. When family and friends take their rightful place and God takes His, we see healthier relationships than when we put family and friends first. America says that family is first. But let’s be honest – is America’s family life healthy? Is our society healthy? Obviously, our problems are many.

And perhaps the answer to all our problems is as simple as counting to one. One commandment, above all others. I encourage you to make God not only your savior, but your lord. When you do, you and your family’s life will change.

Daddy, forgive us for putting others and other things before You. You should be first in everything we do. We are sorry for putting You down the list and for not making You our first fruit of every morning. I repent of any "idols" that I have created in my life.

Your son,

Jody