Exodus 20:1-19
Verse 18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance…
Before we can repent we have to know what we have done wrong and this doesn’t mean what someone else thinks is wrong, we have to know what God says is wrong. We likely memorized the 10 commandments as children and have a basic knowledge of what they mean, but do we give them any thought other than during the reading of the law during church on Sundays?
It is one thing to know the law word by word and another thing to understand the reasoning behind it and knowing the One we are sinning against. The fact is sin in and of itself doesn’t require repentance, it requires death (Romans 6:23). Sin is simply the results of denying God so we can live as we want, repentance becomes necessary when we know the One whose standards we are breaking.
The first commandment for God’s people was to have no other gods before Him. We say we know what that means but when it comes down to putting it into practice we act like we don’t know anything about there being a first commandment. Putting God as the only God of our life takes addressing our self-focused desire to control everything in our lives. Anytime we start looking at life as something we need to live or accomplish without thinking about what God wants us to do, shows we don’t have Him in the top spot in our lives.
Knowing God as the Lord of our lives will cause us to see Him as the Israelites did as they witnessed God giving Moses the Law. They found He was God, not just in the sense of being a higher power which could be admired but as the all-powerful One who could strike them dead in an instant. We don’t know God in this intensity anymore, we have allowed Him to become common place in our thinking. It is this thinking about Him as commonplace which keeps us allowing sin to rule in our lives.
When we are not intentional about our thoughts and actions we show just how much we worship ourselves instead of having God on the throne of our lives. Revival can’t happen in our churches, nation or the world without our coming to a personal understanding of how we have made idols of ourselves.
Making It Personal
Where in your life do you struggle to put God first? How has that kept you from wholehearted, obedient following? Are you ready to repent?
Making It Personal Kids
What does it mean to have no other gods other than God? Do you prove by how you live, think and talk that you don’t have any other gods? What can you do today to prove God is the only true God?
Closing Prayer
Father, we repent of the times we have put something ahead of You. Give us the wisdom we need to see the truth about things in our lives which fight for Your spot. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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