November 1 - Commandment #1- Make Him Your Top Priority

Commandment #1- Make Him Your Top Priority

 “You shall have no others gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3

In his book, The Ten(der) Commandments, Ron Mehl writes it this way. “Imagine you are on a family vacation at Yosemite National Park, and you take the long, winding drive up Glacier Point.  A short walk from the parking lot brings you to the top of a sheer rock cliff, where you can peer over a belt-high railing straight down at the valley about 3,200 feet below,  The car doors fling open and before you can even get your seat belt unlatched, Tommy, your excited three-year-old, leaps out of the car and begins running for the edge as fast as his chubby little legs will carry him.  Is it time to whisper sweetly? Is it time a time to speak quietly and softly? Is it a time for a seminar on “values clarification””
No! As your parent’s heart lurches within your chest, you shout, “Tommy, stop! STOP RIGHT NOW!” 

Violating God’s laws don’t literally lead to a physical death, though some can, but rather move us a little bit away from God.  The Ten Commandments have a bit of that flavor to them. On the one hand, God is very tender and gracious and our friend with us a times.  Like Christ before his death, “Oh Israel that I would take you as a hen takes her children under His wings.  In Psalm, he’s the good shepherd. In Ruth, he’s the kinsmen redeemer.  In Ephesians, he’s the groom waiting for his bridge. We can’t lose sight of God’s love.  On the other hand, God is our strong parent and the righteous judge who wouldn’t be just if he didn’t lay out the direction we need to go

Back in college, I got a summer job riding in a helicopter for two weeks. One time, we were up about 4,000 feet in the air when my door popped open.  I happen to have my seatbelt on so I wasn’t panicked but I could have said, “These seatbelts are so restricting…I mean I shouldn’t have to wear them….I should be able to jump.” At that moment, I was so thankful for seatbelts because they kept me from a perilous fall that would have ended my life. 

The first commandment God gave was in Exodus 20:3,  It says, “You shall have no others gods before Me.” God wants to be first.. He doesn’t want to be one of many. Neither should He ever be relegated to a secondary role.  But the truth is, just like the Israelites and every other person in history, we have a tendency to drift from God and make other things more important than Him,  But God is very passionate about being FIRST in our lives. He doesn’t like to settle for being second. 

Marriages don’t work like and neither does our relationship with God.  Can you imagine that? That's not the way real love works.  How about if I'd married Stephanie and at our wedding I stood up to take vows and I told her, "I love you and I want to marry you. I'll make you a deal. I'm going to be faithful to you half
the time. Aren't you lucky? I'm going to be faithful to you half the time. But don't get the idea that this marriage is an exclusive relationship because I have every intention of having relationships with dozens of other women." She'd probably decked me. And she ought to. Any good woman will not allow a rival. How about if I'd said to my wife, "I will be faithful to you every Sunday morning. But you give me the rest of the week."  Partial faithfulness is not faithfulness at all. (Unless
you're faithful all the time, you're not being faithful.) Some time ago, a guy cheated on his wife and said, “I submit to any punishment to get you back.” (She had him hold a sign on a busy highway that said, “I cheated on my wife.”)
Even though we’ve cheated on God, he’s not out to humiliate us…he wants us to grow from it.  That's what he's saying here. He's saying God wants my whole heart.  The fact is God has promised over and over in the Bible.   He loves us unconditionally.  He loves us completely. He says I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. He says, I want the same commitment from you. I think that's fair. He says, "I love you unconditionally, and I love you completely, and I will never leave you or forsake you. I want the same thing from you." He wants that commitment.  That doesn’t work in marriage and it doesn’t work with God

Matthew 22:37,38 boils it down to the basics when Jesus says, “Love God and Love People”  In society, the more that I follow God, the more I naturally follow the laws of the law.  Thousands of laws, I follow most of them because I want to be a law abiding citizen.  I don’t think about the laws I just follow them because my moral conscience increases.  Ultimately, God wants me to love Him…and if I love Him…I learn to love His decrees and laws.  They are ultimately a litmus test of my life.  If I hate God’s laws…chances are “I don’t know God.” If I love God’s laws…chances are “I know God.”. Psalm 119, David says 176 times how much he loves God’s love and statutes…because He was a “man after God’s own heart.” We begin to see everything differently.  We begin to see God’s plans differently.  Today, we can put Him first above everything…because He put you above everything.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)   Why do we struggle to put God above other things?

2)   Can you name a time you did that?

Consider reading the Word today:

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser