In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. – Hebrews 12:4
Let’s review the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 and name our greatest struggles.
10. Your struggle with contentment: You shall not covet (20:17). Something within us wants more.
9. Your struggle with truth: You shall not bear false witness (20:16). Sometimes it isn’t easy to handle the truth.
8. Your struggle for integrity: You shall not steal (20:15). What can you be trusted with?
7. Your struggle with purity: You shall not commit adultery (20:14). Does anyone find this one easy? Purity is a struggle.
6. Your struggle for peace: You shall not murder (20:13). How do you bring peace in a world filled with trouble?
5. Your struggle with authority: Honor your father and your mother (20:12). Who hasn’t struggled with some authority figure?
4. Your struggle with time: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (20:8). It’s a struggle to master time and establish order.
3. Your struggle with religion: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain (20:7). The world is full of people claiming God’s name for their own cause.
2. Your struggle to worship: You shall not make for yourself a carved image (20:4). Our impulse is to bring God down to our level.
1. Your struggle with God: You shall have no other gods before me (20:3). It isn’t easy to let God be God.
Rate your experience with each of the commands from 1 (no struggle) to 10 (great struggle).
