“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 20:2-3 |
Today’s verse comes from the portion of the Old Testament Scriptures that we frequently refer to as “The Ten Commandments.” These ten principles came as a gift from God to His chosen people, Israel, through God’s servant Moses. They were so important that God engraved them on two stone tablets. These ten absolute rules were to guard and guide His people along the pathway of their lives.
Of primary importance was the commandment to have no other gods in one’s life. And, while we often think about the secular gods of other religions, this commandment indicates that, in our lives as followers of God, we should have nothing that gets in between us and God. That means no human being, no possession, no desire, no achievement, nothing—absolutely nothing—must come between us and the God who loves us and sacrificed His Son, Jesus, in our behalf.
Here’s the verse from Exodus 20:2-3:
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.
God declares that He is the “I am.” He is the One who has accomplished anything and everything in our lives that merits any attention. He has brought us out of the slavery to sin and death and placed us before His throne as redeemed, covered with the cleansing blood of His Son. Surely, He merits our undivided hearts and undistracted minds.
As we begin a new day, let’s determine to remember that we can allow nothing to come between us and God. He will not permit any other “god” in our life, but Himself. And, that, my dear ones, is a marvelous truth.