No Other Gods

There once was a father who had three children whom he loved very much. The children loved their father very much also and whenever he came home from work, the kids would run to him and yell," Hi Dad!" as their father lifted them into his strong arms and gave them a kiss. One day, in expression of his deep love for his children, the father bought them a big screen TV. The children thanked him and were extremely excited.

However pretty soon, when the father came home and in expectation yelled,"Hey, kids, I'm home!" This time there was no sound of little feet running to him or the sound of little voices greeting him. The father walked further into the house and saw his children sitting in front of the new big-screen TV. With their eyes still riveted on the television, they nonchalantly waved and mumbled a "Hi Dad."

The father walked in front of the TV and said to the children,"Kids, I bought this TV for you. It was an expression of my love for you and I do not appreciate you giving your love to this television instead of me."



Do those kids remind you of anyone? We can be like them so much can't we? In his great love for us, God gives us things that are good in and of themselves like talents, friends, ect. But we turn around and give those things preeminence to the great One who in His love gave us those things in the first place. We sacrifice the wonderful, strong love of our heavenly Father for the temporary things of this earth that will never satisfy us. The Lord is the one who will give us the grace and peace to make it through all of life's trials. Nothing compares to Him and His fellowship. If we give our whole hearts to seeking after things on this earth and put them before the Lord we have commited a terrible sin (the first of the Ten Commandments to be exact: Exodus 20:3.) Dueteronomy 6:4-5 says,"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." The first step to doing this is to put the Lord first in everything in your life. We will never know the fullness of His fellowship if we do this.

We will not be sorry when we put the Lord first. He and His everlasting love and grace will always satisfy us. He will endure forever not the things of this world. Let's put Him first.