I’m a little behind in my blogging on the 10 Promises of a New Life… We’re much farther on the radio than I am on the blog.
However, let’s take a quick jump back to slowly catch up…
The First Promise is powerful: (Exodus 20:1-3)
Then God spoke all these words, saying,“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Can you imagine standing in front of Mount Sinai? There’s an amazing special effects show blasting over the mountain. And you are hearing the voice of God!
Not just that – but they’ve just witnessed God pick them up out of Egypt and take them out. They’ve seen God show in a literal way that the God’s of Egypt are ridiculous. They’ve seen Him do spiritual butt-kicking on the Egyptian religion, culture, and government.
Then, they’ve faced the Egyptian army and seen God take them through the Red Sea on DRY GROUND – and then that army get swallowed up by crashing walls of water…
They’ve had God feed them and give them water on their journey.
And then they in front of this mountain and hear God say, “I’m it! I took you from Egypt! I delivered You! You’re not going to have any other gods than me!” And the people said…. “Duh! Ya think?! Who else would we want?”
You see, this first commandment; this first promise only comes after they have been delivered. It only comes after they have seen God take care of them – they have seen their own weakness and are excited to be free!
And when that happens to you – you say, “I don’t want anything else except Him! He’s IT!”
What role does a god play in our lives?
- From our “god” we find out who we are
- From our “god” we find out our purpose
- From our “god” we have a reason to live
- From our “god” we are given structure to our life
- From our “god” we find what is important
- From our “god” we find our own identity
- From our “god” we are filled emotionally
This is the first promise – and it is – when you have been delivered, then nothing else matters but Him.
And, as we’ll see, all of the other promises hang off of this first promise. If you have this promise, you almost don’t need the others. They are simply expanding and defining this promise!
For you, God is saying, “Look – I’ve given you a new life- and when you see that you won’t want anything or anyone else to be in the place of giving you your identity. You won’t have any other gods but me…