Personal Saviors

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3

Simple…easy…very understated. We profess our Christianity and claim our God…one God…the only God…and yet we serve many idols. I am enjoying a new Bible Study that puts a new face on an old commandment. Our verse this morning is a commandment that carries all other commandments much like a ship carries its cargo. A ship is only as good as its body which requires solidity, strength in its ability to carry and uncompromising structure. The same is true with our obedience to this first anchoring commandment. Without obeying this first command all of the others fall away, the hole in our vessel of faith is exposed and our ship sinks.

The author of No Other Gods by Kelly Minter describes two gods- a professed god and a functional god. ‘A professed god is who or what we say our god is; a functional god is who or what actually operates as our god.’ Many of our functional gods are things we become infatuated with in our circumstances. For me, it was my secret spending that replaced my professed god during my dark journey through my daughter’s drug addiction. The word infatuation means ‘an intense but short lived passion or admiration for something.’ I had a professed god but my functional god was fed and ruled my life. Other areas of functional gods include worry, drinking too much, over-eating, drug use, control, etc…anything that replaces God in search of a solution. We cannot be infatuated with God (a short-lived passion) but must be infiltrated by God.

Another functional god has disguised itself in my service to God. I professed that God was the reason for which I served in helping those in need. In reality my functional god was the desire to be accepted and to be perceived as hero. I failed to set boundaries and burned myself out. We cannot claim obedience to this commandment and serve another idol in our lives.

Pray that God will show you what is operating as a functional god in your life creating a rip in your spiritual vessel.