Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Family”
Our Bible verse for today: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:3 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Don’t allow your family to become your god.”
One year for Christmas Linda and I took our four young children to spend Christmas week in a rented cabin at Big Bear Lake, high up in the mountains of Southern California. It was a winter wonderland complete with cold temperatures, lots of snow, and a frozen lake. However, the ice on the lake was thin and not safe to walk on.
One morning I looked out the kitchen window towards the lake, which was right in the backyard of our cabin, and I saw my daughter leading one of my toddler sons by the hand as they walked on the thin ice about 100 yards from the shore. Needless to say, I freaked out and ran out of the cabin yelling for them to come back to the shore (and praying a lot too!). Fortunately God protected them and they did not fall through the thin ice.
I’m praying He will do the same for me this morning because in this devotional message, I’m going to be venturing out on some thin ice, Lol.
In the first of the Ten Commandments (quoted above), God commanded that we are not to have any other gods in our lives. In other words, there is to be nothing that’s allowed to have a higher priority in your life than God. And we can’t just say that nothing is more important to us than God, we have too live as if nothing is more important to us than God. Otherwise, that thing has become a god to us.
Ok, here comes the thin ice: “Some of you treat your family like a god.” Some of you act as if your family (your spouse, children, grandchildren, extended family members, etc), are more important to you than God. Now I know those words would never come out of your mouth but I’m not talking about what you say, I’m talking about what you do.
Some people are so consumed with thoughts of family life that they allow family life to dictate and take priority over everything else. Family issues are allowed to interfere with their personal quiet time with the Lord; family activities take priority over coming to church or fulfilling ministry commitments; family needs are allowed to use up some of that first 10% of the income (the tithe) that is supposed to belong to the Lord; and on and on it goes.
This is especially a problem here in rural Tennessee where I live. In this culture family is king – more so than in any of the other nine regions of the USA I have lived in during my adult life. But it’s mostly a good thing. I love the emphasis on family life that exists here. But sometimes the pull of family life is so strong that it’s over-the-top, to the point that it violates the first commandment and therefore actually becomes sinful. Can you imagine that? Family life (a good thing), becomes so much of a compulsive preoccupation for someone that it actually becomes sinful because in actual practice in their life, it has nudged God out of first place.
Now, I’m one of the biggest advocates for strong families that you will ever meet. Helping families to stay strong is a big part of my work as a Pastor. But you have to be careful that your emphasis on family doesn’t become so strong that it becomes a god in your life.
Prayerfully check yourself on this. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring truth to your mind about it. Make sure that God really is number one in your life, and that your life actually does reflect that truth. God must be number one and everything else, and everyone else, comes after He does. Take good care of your family, yes, but don’t let it become your god.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 