February 10th, 2025
1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
One of the wildest scenes you can ever witness in the 21st century is the reaction of Swifties to literally anything Taylor Swift does! I remember near the end of 2024, Taylor Swift came to Toronto near the close of her "Eras Tour," and the fanfare was insane. One moment I recall seeing on social media made me realize Taylor's fans' deep love for her. After waiting in a line that circled blocks for merchandise, the clothes went out of stock, and the fan was distraught. A news reporter spoke to the middle-aged fan in full-fledged tears, devastated that she could not rep her Swiftie pride with her merch! I remember thinking, "Wow, Taylor's fans really worship this girl like she's god or something!?" Ironically enough, as much as we can look at some fans oddly for their extreme love and admiration for ultimately regular people and things, often, and sometimes unknowingly, we display the same kind of intense and misaligned regard for the things in life we so deeply desire.
What's something you really love or want? If you really think about it, our loves and wants are the driving motivators for what we do and who we choose to become. Sure, the more minor loves and wants don't have as much impact in shaping us, but the more significant loves and wants undoubtedly do. This influence is positive in some ways, as love for one's friends or wanting to succeed in life can cause us to care for others or to work hard to achieve our goals. However, when these loves and wants are misaligned, and our reverence and admiration for such things reach "Swifite" levels, we can find ourselves drawn away from the only one really worthy of such love and devotion: God.
After freeing Israel from slavery in Egypt, God gave Israel the Ten Commandments as principles for living well as God's people. The first commandment is the most important and offers us wisdom for living today.
"You shall have no other gods before me."
The command's point was quite simple. The God of the Bible is the one true God, creator of everything and definer of our purpose and morality. This God is the true authority over our lives, saves and loves us, and is worthy of worship. We should give Him our deepest love, reverence, and admiration alone.
Throughout the Bible, the children of Israel often struggle with this command. They find themselves worshipping idols and misdirecting their love and reverence to seek comfort (Exod 32) or to be like everyone else (1 Sam 8:4-8,19). Today, we can find ourselves struggling with this similar issue of idol worship, making our wants and loves the god of our life instead of Jesus.
Some of us may love the thought of being accepted by everyone and want to be liked at our school, so we make "acceptance" the god of our life and make choices to maintain our acceptance in our friend groups. Others may love the thought of reckless freedom and doing whatever we want without restriction, so we make "freedom" our God and live our lives in a way that makes us the most unrestrained. Although these desires are not always evil in and of themselves, when these things receive an unhealthy amount of love and reverence, they replace Jesus and become God over our lives, a recipe for disaster. Such an elevation of earthly things will only lead to our own destruction and take us away from God and his good plans.
In our effort to give God our hearts and devotion this year, we must ask the question, "Is Jesus the only God in my life?".
What motivates your decision-making? What do you value the most? What takes up most of your time and thoughts? Do you follow Jesus' way of living or something else? Answering such questions can help us see where Jesus truly stands regarding his priority in our lives and what other idols may be receiving our worship.
To honestly give God our hearts, he must be the only one who owns our devotion. That means to take God seriously this year; it's time for some sacrifices. The fact that sometimes we struggle with making God our priority isn't something to be ashamed of, but something we should go to God with, in humility, to say, "Lord forgive me; I need your help!". The awesome thing about God is that he is kind and gracious to us, willing to forgive us when we fall short and strengthen us in our time of need. So come to Jesus! Surrender the things holding you back from following him fully, and watch as he grows you in your faith this year!
A Challenge for this Week:
Answer the self-assessment question listed below to help you see if God is indeed the priority in your life. Don't be hard on yourself if your answers are not what you want them to be. Review the answers to the following questions, ask for forgiveness putting other things before God, and pray for grace to be more intentional in putting God first!
- What motivates your decision-making?
- What do you value the most?
- What takes up most of your time?
- Of your many thoughts, what do you think about the most?
- Do you follow Jesus' way of living or something else?