Gods

“You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)

Gods abound these days and always have. In one sense, one’s “god” is whoever or whatever he most

• Worships
• Serves
• Loves
• Fears
• Trusts
• Believes in
• Looks to for deliverance (“salvation”)
• Obeys
 • Devotes his life to
• Prays to
• Thanks

For one example among many, God specifically identifies money as a god in the New Testament when He equates greed with “idolatry” and when He opposes God and “Mammon” (“riches”) as two rivals for the hearts of men: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) Money worship in our day is as common as Baal worship was to the ancient Canaanites. This is evident in the way so many people—rich, poor, and everywhere in between—develop their entire sense of security around money, devote their entire lives to the obtaining of it, fear more than anything the loss of it, place their trust in it (despite what we say on our money), and look to it in the end for deliverance. After all, didn’t Solomon himself say, “Money is the answer to everything?”

Yes, but Solomon also said that God is the one who gives riches and wealth and even the power to eat of it. There is one God above all who meets all needs and deserves all honor, praise, thanks, and worship. One test of your “idolatry factor” is you prayers. If you don’t pray at all or you don’t pray much, even as a Christian, you serve other gods in the presence of God. Those who truly trust in God look to Him for all their needs—spiritual, physical, emotional, and other needs—and give Him thanks for it all as well.

“Great and wonderful God of heaven and earth, we give You thanks for all things this day and look to You alone for all things. We pray, dear God, we would have no other gods before You. We pray we would not be found at the end of the day to have worshiped or loved or feared anyone or anything above You. For You alone are our help, our hope, our Savior, our comfort; You alone are our Lord, our Master, our King, our Center-of-All-Life. Make our hearts truly devoted to You in all things, dear God, provide for us all our needs, and deliver us this day from all of our enemies, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”