Putting it all in the right perspective

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The First Commandment: (Exodus 20:2-6)

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.


It’s interesting sometimes how that you learn things about God and our lives from places you expect to be learning about something else. While I was completely aware that taking a seminar on finances at a church would indeed be based on biblical principles of stewardship, I did not quite expect to be thinking so much about our relationship with God in such detail while contemplating our financial situation. One of the questions evoked a response from my heart: We must structure our lives around God, not try to structure God around our lives. 

I’ve been contemplating that line since the class on Sunday afternoon and it struck me how in our present society our lives are structured around so many things. We take a day off work to go fishing. We take some time off work to go visit family. Or even, I’m going to take this Friday off just because I don’t feel like going to work. It’s so common that we will take time out of our life to spend with others, or to do something we enjoy, even to go see a ‘Super Bowl’ or Hockey game.. then we Christians say something like, Oh I’d go to church.. but I have to work this Sunday. I would help at the soup kitchen, but I just can’t seem to find the time.

At some point we have to think that our day of Worship should be more important than those other things! Shouldn’t we consider taking a day of vacation to go to church? Or to take some time off to go to a spiritual retreat? Or to put aside some of that vacation money that we normally save up to get away, to instead spend time growing in our faith? What are some ways that you can restructure your life around God?