TWO FEET AWAY AND A WORLD APART

"I don’t believe anyone really makes a conscious decision to worship any of these things, however, the amount of time we dedicate to them will ultimately give these things priority on the throne of our hearts—a spot that rightfully belongs to Jesus Christ."

When God gave the ten commandments to the people of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, it was to lead the people to a life of practical holiness. In these commandments, the people could see the goodness of God and his plan for how they should live. The Israelites had just been delivered from a land full of many different idols, so it wasn’t necessarily difficult when he told them to worship and believe in Him—They were used to worshipping several idols. But when he said, “you must not have any other God but me” that was a game changer! In today’s world, if we aren’t careful we can allow a number of things to becomes gods to us. Work, relationships, money, affirmation, etc. can all become gods when we concentrate too much on them and look to them for security and purpose. I don’t believe anyone really makes a conscious decision to worship any of these things, however, the amount of time we dedicate to them will ultimately give these things priority on the throne of our hearts—a spot that rightfully belongs to Jesus Christ. If I am honest with you, the line between me being driven and hardworking vs. allowing work & ministry to be what consumes me, is a very fine line. I constantly have a nudging from the Holy Spirit in my prayer time to come back to what matters, to ensure I START my day in His word, in praise and worship and to “turn it off” when I am home, to be fully present in what matters most aside from my relationship with Him---my marriage and my kids. Because of our work ethic or our inability to "turn it off", it is unfortunately all to common to be 2 feet away from your spouse but a world apart. We can be sitting on the same couch but with our faces in the phones or computers, or TV, etc. and we miss out on this critical time of rest with each other, to grow, lean on and encourage one another and grow in emotional intimacy.