SpeakFree

No gods For You!

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me." --Exodus 20:2-3

Command number 1: "You shall have no other gods before me."

Remember, God is actually speaking these words to the Israelites.  They are sitting at the base of Mount Sinai and trembling at His voice.  God is giving them words of wisdom, guidelines for living a good life.

God starts out the ten commandments with a very important one, "Don't worship anyone, or anything but me," "Don't place anything in front of worshiping me."  He begins the ten by stating that He is God, nothing else should replace Him.  God realizes that humans have this desire to fill their lives with something and He wants to make sure that the children of Israel place Him first.

How often do we place God first?  Ponder that question for a few moments and answer honestly.  How often do we place things or people in front of God?  What is the first thing we do when we get home from a long day?  If we were to answer these questions honestly, we would find that there would be things in our lives that we put in front of God.

I am just as guilty as everyone else.  My problem is that I look at God time as important and necessary and not as rest time.  So I do my morning devotions and then proceed with my day.  When I get home from classes I turn on a tv show or I hit the books for homework, forgetting that God has helped me through the day.

I think that is what our problem is.  We have been told over and over that we need to spend time with God everyday and that it must be done if we want a good and healthy relationship with Him.  We have made it seem like work, when really it should be a relaxing time with a friend.  Do we find spending time with friends as work?  I don't.

So how do we put God first in our lives?  How do we balance time with God with time for ourselves?  Good questions, and I don't have the absolute answer to that.  But I do know that God says not to put anything in front of Him.  So maybe we should try and involve God in everything we do.  Watching a tv show?  Talk with God about it during commercials like you would with your friends.  Surfing facebook?  Ask God who needs you to pray for them.

Just a couple suggestions.  Let me know what you think.