The other day I read Exodus Chapter 20 again. It inspired me to go 'back to the basics' of my faith. I want to make a post for each commandment and just unpack what each commandment means to me. There are many areas of my life that I need to work on, by spending time exploring each commandment I hope to identify some of these areas. My hope is that this will inspire others to look at their walk again. Are there areas of your life that you enjoy being ignorant about? We so often focus on the great things that God provides for us, and we choose to forget that one day will we be judged. If we are living fully in God then how will we ever fully live with God.
I don't mean to impress that if we break any of these laws, that we are doomed to hell. Otherwise I would know where I am going already. I do believe that we need to make every effort to follow these laws as part of a Holy and full-filled relationship with God. I don't want to take advantage of God's love, and I want to be aware of His anger towards sin. What a life we could live if we didn't have these stumbling blocks called sin.
"You shall have no other gods before me"
On the surface, to me this means that God is the one and only entity that we should worship, pray to, listen to and love. It is a fairly simple commandment. However, to me this also means so much more. God should be our life, our everything. It is very easy to focus our lives on other things. I tend to base my success on things like money, possessions, popularity, and appearance. What do any of these things have to do with God?
It so easy to see when you write it down, that these are worldly standards. Every day we are told that these are the expectations and guidelines for our lives. If we are failing in any of these areas then we are losing the game, sub-par.
How do you justify these things in your life? If you are focusing on worldly pleasures, are you serving another god? Isn't Satan the god of the world? How do we interrupt the cycle, stop, and re-focus our lives for God?
These are all big, challenging, and confusing questions. It is easy to say what to do or not to do, the real challenge is living it out.
I think God is challenging me to refocus my life, and disconnect from the other gods in my life. Here is what I am trying to do to accomplish that:
I) Read the manual for life he has provided, the Bible. It amazes me how practically every verse provides insight into God. No matter where I open the Bible to - I find words to challenge, humble and encourage me. My biggest mistake in my walk with God was to stop reading the Bible. Now, I realise it is the best tool we have for plugging into God. Are you thinking... "umm yeah, that's a no brainer?". Well it does seem like a very obvious statement, but it is so easy to allow ourselves to be blissfully ignorant, especially when we don't want to face the consequences.
II) Don't just read the manual, put it to action! When you buy something that requires assembly, it comes with a manual. With a show of hands, how many people actually read the manual before trying to put it together? This is so funny to me because it's so true. I am just picturing moments where my husband and I have bought something, and I ask him.. "Do you want to read the directions?" and he always replies "Nope! I got this!". That's not fair to him, I do the same thing.. it's just funnier when it's someone else right? ;) Usually, we will end up putting something in upside down, or resort to looking and that darn manual. Wouldn't it have been so much easier if we had just read it in the first place and followed the directions?
Another example: my mom always told me, read the whole recipe before you start so you know what you have to do. Well the other weekend I made a pie... and when I finished making the pie I got to the end of the recipe and it said chill for 4 hours! But we were eating it in 2! If only I had read the recipe, just like my mom said... don't you hate it when your parents are right? ;)
I don't mean to impress that if we break any of these laws, that we are doomed to hell. Otherwise I would know where I am going already. I do believe that we need to make every effort to follow these laws as part of a Holy and full-filled relationship with God. I don't want to take advantage of God's love, and I want to be aware of His anger towards sin. What a life we could live if we didn't have these stumbling blocks called sin.
"You shall have no other gods before me"
On the surface, to me this means that God is the one and only entity that we should worship, pray to, listen to and love. It is a fairly simple commandment. However, to me this also means so much more. God should be our life, our everything. It is very easy to focus our lives on other things. I tend to base my success on things like money, possessions, popularity, and appearance. What do any of these things have to do with God?
It so easy to see when you write it down, that these are worldly standards. Every day we are told that these are the expectations and guidelines for our lives. If we are failing in any of these areas then we are losing the game, sub-par.
How do you justify these things in your life? If you are focusing on worldly pleasures, are you serving another god? Isn't Satan the god of the world? How do we interrupt the cycle, stop, and re-focus our lives for God?
These are all big, challenging, and confusing questions. It is easy to say what to do or not to do, the real challenge is living it out.
I think God is challenging me to refocus my life, and disconnect from the other gods in my life. Here is what I am trying to do to accomplish that:
I) Read the manual for life he has provided, the Bible. It amazes me how practically every verse provides insight into God. No matter where I open the Bible to - I find words to challenge, humble and encourage me. My biggest mistake in my walk with God was to stop reading the Bible. Now, I realise it is the best tool we have for plugging into God. Are you thinking... "umm yeah, that's a no brainer?". Well it does seem like a very obvious statement, but it is so easy to allow ourselves to be blissfully ignorant, especially when we don't want to face the consequences.
II) Don't just read the manual, put it to action! When you buy something that requires assembly, it comes with a manual. With a show of hands, how many people actually read the manual before trying to put it together? This is so funny to me because it's so true. I am just picturing moments where my husband and I have bought something, and I ask him.. "Do you want to read the directions?" and he always replies "Nope! I got this!". That's not fair to him, I do the same thing.. it's just funnier when it's someone else right? ;) Usually, we will end up putting something in upside down, or resort to looking and that darn manual. Wouldn't it have been so much easier if we had just read it in the first place and followed the directions?
Another example: my mom always told me, read the whole recipe before you start so you know what you have to do. Well the other weekend I made a pie... and when I finished making the pie I got to the end of the recipe and it said chill for 4 hours! But we were eating it in 2! If only I had read the recipe, just like my mom said... don't you hate it when your parents are right? ;)
III) Cut the ties of the weights that are holding me down. What is holding me back? What habits have I formed that I need to change.
I think there are endless steps we have to follow in this life. We are constantly growing, changing and adapting. There's no.. do this and this and this and you will be ok. At this moment in my life, these are 3 steps I need to focus on and as you can see they are all related, their purpose is to bring me back to God, the one and only.
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