Deuteronomy 5.

Giving of the Ten Commandments.  The warning was given to “be careful to do them.”  This phrase is repeated a few times within chapter 5.  The first command; “To have no other gods before me,” is already a point of failure.  The Israelites and I both share a similar distraction.  Why is it so easy to put things of this world before the things of God?  The tangible and temporal are both immediate and fleeting, yet my mind finds ways to meditate on those things, and not on God.  Why is that so?  Can’t I train my mind, heart, and soul to focus on the God above?  I know his ways are worthy of my adoration and praise, yet I fail to do so.  I need to allow the spirit within me to redirect my thoughts and passions far more often in order to better keep this very first of commandments.

God’s jealousy demands the proper focus on Him.  Not only to “not carve an image,” but to refrain from allowing my mind to worship anything above him.  His wrath comes when provoked to jealousy.

“Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy;” another very straightforward command that is lacking in my spiritual discipline.  The legalism involved in the discussion of what is and is not work does not interest me, nor did it Jesus, but the keeping of it does.  How can I be better focused to indeed keep one day of seven focused on God and holiness?  Not hat is not needed the other six, but somehow by removing other things, and distilling the day down to holiness alone allows my heart and life to pulse and pump more healthily.

“Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear Me and to keep my commands, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever.” Deuteronomy 5:29