NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
Today’s Text: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)Today’s Thoughts: God created us and thus we belong to Him. We chose to stray and thus in order for Him to be able to keep us forever He sent His Son to die for us. We deserved to die but God bought us so that He could live with us for all eternity. That’s the kind of God we serve. Our God does not require us to appease Him with human sacrifices as believed about some other gods – our God sacrificed Himself in our place. We serve an amazing God! He wants to be first in our lives, but truly He deserves to be. We need to be careful not to ever hold anything or anyone above the Lord, including ourselves. May God always occupy the first place in our hearts and lives.
Today’s Testimony: For years I wondered about the first two commandments. To me they seemed so similar. I figured that if you didn’t have any gods before the Lord you obviously wouldn’t worship any graven images. But then I saw the huge difference between the two commandments and realized why the Lord gave them both. The first one says, “No gods before Me – I must be first and foremost.” The second one says, “No other gods beside Me – I must be your all in all.” Yes these two commandments may be similar, but they have an important difference. We’ll discuss a bit more about the difference tomorrow.
Right now I’d like to share the benefit of keeping the first commandment. When I introduced this topic I mentioned that the first four commandments display our love for God. The first four commandments can thus often seem like selfish requests. But seeing we know that God is far from selfish, we could maybe settle for the fact that God asks us to do these things because he deserves our love and obedience. But there is something far more special about these commandments. God gave them because He knew they would benefit us. And yet, let me be quite honest – the observance of these first four commandments is a life or death situation. Please keep reading through this entire series and if you are not convinced, ask the Lord. If you’re still not convinced – I’m only an email away.
So now let’s discuss the benefit of having no other gods above the one true God. Let me start by asking you if you have a very close earthly friend? Do you share everything, or just about everything, together? Do you both know what the other likes and dislikes? Do you ever know what the other would say about a certain situation before you’ve even shared it with him or her, simply because you know each other so well? Why is it that you know each other so well? Is it because of the time you spend together being best friends? It’s when someone is important to you that you come to know them personally right? That’s how it must be with God. We need to spend so much time with Him building on a personal relationship that when He speaks – we know it’s Him; when we need to make a decision – we know what He would have us do; when we have a problem – we can peacefully trust in Him. That’s what we need!!! We need to have God as first and foremost in our lives so that we can cope with all that life throws at us. How many times do we make terrible mistakes because we cannot hear God’s voice leading us? How many times do we shrink into despair when we face trials because we cannot sense the Lord’s peace? How many times do we not know what God would have us do as opposed to what we want, others want or Satan himself wants? Would you like to be able to live with the certainty that all these fears would be gone? The answer is quite simple, and yet to put it into practice is not that easy. We need to get to know the Lord better – we need to have Him as our first and only God. We need a relationship with the Lord that is so strong that nothing can separate us from His side. We cannot live eternally with the Lord if we do not have a personal relationship with Him and the only way to get an unshakeable one is to place Him as first and foremost. We can only truly cope in this life if we do the same. God truly wasn’t being selfish – He knew we’d need Him.
Today’s Task: Make sure God is Your God above all else. Spend time with Him and form a strong and personal relationship with your Saviour. You need the Lord! Please give Him first place in your heart and life and never ever give that place to anyone or anything else. Make God your one and only.
Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You gave us the Ten Commandments for our benefit. I praise You that we can have a close, strong and personal relationship with You. I thank You that You’ve done all You can to make that possible – the rest is up to us. Please help us to place You first in our lives so that we can come to know You more. Help us to have no other gods before You. We want to know You. We love You Lord. Amen.
