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Robbing God

Writer's picture: East Martin CRCEast Martin CRC

Exodus 20:1-18

Verse 15  “You shall not steal.”

 

    This seems like the simplest of all the commands, a pretty straight forward rule which shouldn’t take much effort to apply to our lives.  But if like the other laws He gave it for a reason, would He have included a command which is easy enough to do without being reminded?  Since we know God doesn’t do anything without purpose we need to see if we understand this command for all it is.

 

    The easy portion of it is how we shouldn’t take anything which isn’t ours but when we start thinking about all the things which can be taken, it kind of shows the scope the command actually involves.  We can find ourselves discounting the pen, pencil or paper clip we take from the office as not something that amounts to much but God didn’t give the command, “you shall not steal except when the person you are stealing from has enough they wouldn’t miss it.”

 

    The thing is we don’t only treat each other like that, we may be treating God that way too.  No one owns more than He does but that may mean we take Him and all He owns for granted.  In a call to repentance through the prophet Malachi, God told His people one reason they were under a curse as a nation, they were robbing Him (Malachi 3:6-12).

 

    As God had blessed His people in the Promised Land, they had started looking to their riches for what they had originally had to trust God for.  Because they started focusing on what they had instead of Who gave it to them, they had not given the Lord what He had commanded them to give Him.  The more they had, the more they lived to enjoy all they had, forgetting God and all He stood for.  We can miss the joy of giving back to Him as well.

 

    Whether we are stealing things, time, or someone else’s peace of mind nothing can compare to what we steal from God.  We steal from His good name when we claim to be Christians and are not living as we are commanded to.  Anytime we break one of the 10 commandments we are stealing His lordship over our lives.  It’s more than not giving Him a portion of our finances, it is our not giving Him our all because if we are His, we need to be all His.

 

Making It Personal

    Where is stealing an issue in your life?  Have you ever stolen anything from God?  Do you trust Him to provide for all your needs?

 

Making It Personal Kids

    Have you ever stolen anything?  Why would Jesus say stealing is bad?  What is the opposite of stealing?

 

Closing Prayer

    Father, we repent of the things we have stolen from You and others.  Give us generous hearts instead of greedy ones.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

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East Martin Christian Reformed Church

510 118th Ave

Martin, MI 49070

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