Monday Thought – August 3, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“God spoke: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.’” (Exodus 20:1-3)

The first three of the Ten Commandments deal with how we treat God. God is very clear and direct in indicating makes it clear that He will not take second place in anyone’s life. God demands to be in first place or He will accept no place at all!

“You shall have no other gods before me.” The threat was that the Jews would place God as one of many gods they worshiped. The Egyptians had many gods and so did many of the other peoples the Jews knew or would encounter. God didn’t want to be the top God on their list, He wanted to be the only God they worshiped!

The threat today is more subtle. It’s not a god that we are tempted to worship, but that someone else or something else might take the place that God wants reserved only for Himself.

Many people consider their own mind to be above being wrong and judge everything by what their mind can conceive. They give no thought to the fact that their mind might be limited or that they might not know everything.

Others put their own ability to take care of themselves in God’s place. They don’t need to trust God or anyone else because they can provide for themselves. Self-made men and women are among the hardest to bring into a place of submission to the Lord.

There are a thousand other things that we are tempted to exalt to a place of worship and service … money, sports, pleasure, family, career, and the list is almost endless.

God’s point is that none of these things can become first in our lives or be worshiped or served. We are to worship and serve the Lord and allow all of the other things to fall into the place and the perspective God gives to them.

His, by Grace, Steve