What Do We Put First?

"You shall have no other gods before me."

--Exodus 20:3  (NKJV)

From the daily Bible reading on February 6, 2013 of Psalm 29; Matthew 25:31-26:5; Exodus 20-21.

On a mountain, with all the children of Israel gathered below, in a cloud of darkness with lightning flashing and thundering all around, God gave Moses His Laws, the Ten Commandments.  The first of these served as the basis of the response Jesus gave to the Pharisee lawyer who asked which is the great commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:34-37).  God's commandment continued with the main gist being that we should put no other "god", nothing, before Him.  There is but one God and He is God.  If we truly love God as Jesus instructs us, it would be easy to obey this command.  But do we?  How often do we prioritize our lives to where church and worship slip down the list from where they should be at number one, even on Sundays?  We can make "gods" of any objects, real and imagined, solid or intangible.  Our idol doesn't have to be cast from gold or silver.  It may be our favorite football team.  If a race or a ball game or a crafts sale or a home goods show or a day trip to the mountains or anything else is more important to us than worshiping the God of all creation, then we are not following the great commandment, we do not fully love God.  Anything that we put before Him, anything that we devote our time and money and energy too instead of to Him becomes our false god.  This isn't to say that we can't love these things and enjoy doing them or shouldn't devote any time to them, just not to the exclusion of giving even more to God.  They should not become first, God should.  Even if we legitimately cannot honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, due to work or illness or family needs or the like, we can still find some way to honor our heavenly Father and put Him first.  All honor and glory to God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Ever forgiving Father, please have mercy on us when we place something else before You, when we forget just how important You are to our very lives, now and throughout eternity.  Forgive us when we fail to worship You and give you the glory.  Thank you, Lord, for Your grace and Your dominion over our lives.  In Jesus' name I ask and I pray.  Amen.