God’s Rules

Finding Freedom for Your Life in His Commands

At some point in your life, you’ve likely had a negative reaction to reading the Ten Commandments, because one of them went against something you wanted to do.

Generally, we don’t like rules very much, do we? We tend to see them as inhibitive, preventative and stifling. As children, they represent everything we want to do but cannot. As an adult … well, the same.

 “It’s just a little lie, Lord. No harm done. It didn’t hurt anything.”

“They had a WHOLE pack of those pens at work, God. I took two. No big deal.”

And once justification to break the rule begins, the resentment of the rule starts to settle in, and what seemed small becomes the first stone used in wall between you and God.

In a recent discussion, Family Life Radio artist Tasha Layton shared:

“When we see a rule or a boundary, like scripture lays out sometimes in regard to things, we think it’s not loving, or we think it’s there to hold us back or keep us from being free. It’s, in fact, the opposite.” 

“The freedom people are longing for comes from God, and the gospel and living your life according to His tenants.”

When you think of any rule that’s ever been established in your life, it was put there for your own good. 

• Your mother told you not to have a snack before dinner so that you wouldn’t spoil your appetite, so you’d receive the necessary nourishment in that important meal. 
• Your teachers told you not to cheat on tests, because if you didn’t commit that information to memory yourself, it would not be there when you needed it later on. 
• You are often prohibited from doing personal things on company time, so you have enough minutes in your workday to accomplish our professional tasks. Then they aren’t looming over you when you’re off the clock.

When God established the Ten Commandments, Moses delivered them with the message, “And now … what does that Lord your God ask of you but … to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord that I am giving you this day for your own good.” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13 BSB).

God is good, and everything He has established is good. His laws are good, and they are for our good.

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