#3 The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17)

Being a Christian for sometime now,  I felt ashamed that I really do not memorize the Ten Commandments of God. I only have snippets of it in my mind. I haven't even had read the whole Bible yet. But, that should not keep me from following God. I may have little knowledge about the entire Bible but I am learning. And I believe that going through this supposedly 30-day of Beginning Your Walk with Jesus Christ would help me in becoming more closer to God. Besides, it is not about how much you know but how you had lived for God. It is all about how you had dedicated your life to the one who saved you. And speaking of which, I felt a little bit sad reading this,

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ~~ Exodus 20:4

Before I thought that idols were those statues we had been worshiping before, but then having a deep thought of it, I don't think about it that way now. I assessed myself and asked if I had made any idol in any form. And, boom! It hit me. What idols really are, are those that take you away from God. They are those that are stealing your attention from Him. And a lot of these things had stole my undivided devotion to God.

For sometime now, I really wanted to have the iPhone. But I couldn't, so I kept on dreaming and thinking about it. There were even times when I just stare at an image of it - an idol! I've dreamed of having things, mostly techie. But then those were not just the idols I had made for myself. I haven't noticed it but I had even been into idolizing people, even the man I wish would be the man to whom God will hand me over. I never realized it until recently that I am slowly making him an idol. I try to have a sneak peak of even just one image of him. And now, I am ashamed of myself for behaving like that. But then people, even and especially if they are Christians, shouldn't be taking our focus from God. Instead, they should be drawing us closer to Him. So, after realizing that I had been making these idols unconsiously, I decided to stop it. I decided to stop thinking about the iPhone and all those crazy gadgets. I decided to stop thinking even about that man, I say, if he is really the man God sent for me, I should not be acting this way, instead I should be drawn closer to God instead of being taken away from Him.

God is a jealous God. And when our gaze and our devotion is not in Him, He gets jealous and punishes those who stop devoting themselves to Him. I don't want to be punished and I certainly don't want to end my devotion to God, to the one man who would never abandone me - Jesus.

It isn't easy to walk away from those things you love. But, if I were to be asked who or what to choose, I'd pick God instead of those things and instead of any other person. I'd chose to be with my Father forever.

How about you? Had you been drawn away from God in any way? Had your gaze been away from Him? Had you been unconsciously having an undivided attention with Him?

If then, just turn back to God and make Him the center of your attention once more. Ask for forgiveness and He will surely forgive you.