God, First and Foremost

1-You shall have no other gods before Me.

2-You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3-You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Exodus 20:3-7 (NASB)

I thought we would start with God...always a good place to start. We all say we put Him first, but do we really? I know I often think about myself first, and then almost as often try to back and fill so it looks like I am following hard after God and walking in His will. I am not fooling Him, that is for sure. Maybe I need a "count to ten" type pause to realign myself every time I am about to do something, really train myself to think about Him, and others, and then me. I never find that easy.

Idols, there are so many to trip us up. Ever put your job first? Ever put your family first? Have you ever missed church because you had a Dallas Cowboys game to go to and they were playing early on a Sunday? Ever spent more time planning to party than to pray? Some of these may make you laugh, some make you squirm. But anything you put before God falls into the idol category as it becomes more important to you than He does at that particular point in time.

Taking the Lord's name in vain, there is so much here. You can take His name in vain through your actions as well as your words. And since the darkest battles are fought inside you, His name can be taken in vain in your thoughts as well.

Just started the list and I am messing up all over the place. How about you?