Our Relationship with God and Others

This is my daily bread testimony from this week. There may be some overlap with my last post. I really like this passage. It came at the right time.

Exodus 20:1-21

Key Verse 20:2-3 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

The Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God to give His people guidance on how to live and worship according to God’s standards. The first four commandments are focused on our relationship with God. They state that there is only one God and His name is holy. He is not to be made into an image that could be worshipped. Lastly, we need to keep the Sabbath day holy like He did when he created the world. Some of these commands sound easy to follow; after all, I only worship one God, do not make an image of Him, and do not misuse His name, and keep the Sabbath day holy. When I think about it more deeply, I can see that I may not have kept these commands. I may not have worshiped other gods, but I have lost sight of God and fixed my eyes on worldly things. M. Phillip’s message yesterday, focused on this. Hebrews 12:1-3 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” This passage almost sounds like Exodus 20:2-3. God had brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. He was their deliverer and they should only focus on Him and no other gods. In Hebrews, we are told that we should ‘fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (v.2). He took up the cross to free us from sin and death. Our focus should be on God and not on other things. He is our Creator, Savior, and Lord. During the YDJ retreat, we learned about discipleship. Grace gave the first message on the calling of the disciples. She focused on Mark 3:14, “He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” She pointed out two main purposes in why Jesus called the disciples. One of them was that ‘they might be with him’ (3:14). As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be with Jesus, moreover, to spend time with him. I think this is an important part in fixing or eyes on Jesus and following the command to have no other gods beside God. When we fix our eyes on something, everything else becomes less important or blurry. Another command that I take lightly and do not honor as much as I should is to keep the Sabbath day holy. This day, Sunday, should be reserved for worshipping God. My agenda for that day should not be filled up with homework, watching TV, going shopping, and other things. This day should primarily be dedicated to spending time with God and His word. Going to CBF and Sunday worship service can easily become an obligation that needs to be fulfilled. It is easy to lose focus of what is important.

Last fall, I went through some spiritual struggles. I felt drained and overwhelmed with my responsibilities in CBF and the Praise Team. I thought about quitting both because they had become obligations. I felt pressured (or pressured myself) to always be there and be available. I realized that I would regret my decision to leave these two responsibilities I had always enjoyed. I also knew that this would not have helped me in turning my focus to God, I was rather afraid that I would move even farther away from Him. I had a lot of time to think about my relationship with God in the last few weeks and learned that I had not been very faithful in prayer or joyful in praise as Romans 12:12 says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” I had failed to fix my eyes on God and His word, and to give Him the praise that He deserved. Revelations 4:11 taught me that God deserves to be praise because He is my Creator, Lord, and Savior. There it says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

The first four commandments teach us that we need to have the right relationship and attitude toward God, and once we have that we can have the right relationship with others as God commands us to have in the other six Commandments. In training the disciples, Jesus tried to teach them to have a heart for others and put them before themselves. He wanted them to be servants and see the people as he saw them. He also called us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This is easier said than done. It is easy to focus on oneself and your own problems or even dismiss the problems of others. This is one thing that Jesus had to teach the disciples. He did not want them to focus on the problem or leave the people to solve the problem themselves, like in the passage of feeding the five thousand. He wanted them to focus on what the people needed and to help them accordingly. This is an area I still have to work on. I need to learn to overcome myself to really love others and see them like Jesus did. I pray that we all can focus on and love God, and to love our neighbor.

One word: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:30-31)