Take a few moments of reflection and become still. Focus on breathing slowly and deeply. Allow your heart to become filled with the beauty of God's law in your life.

Exodus 20:1-2

Then God delivered all these commandments: "I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery."

This passage begins God's proclamation of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. The Commandments offered the People of God freedom from all the things that might enslave their souls. The culture and world that we live in is not so very different from that of the Israelites. It too is besieged by violence, war, clashing ideologies, and a consumer culture that holds little of value save for the bottom line. God desires us to be free from all that would enslave our hearts and souls. God wants our full attention. The Commandments offer us a way to focus our energies on God.

From what things does my spirit want to escape?

How can God's Commandments help me to escape from things that seek to enslave me?

(Pray, using these words or words of your own.)

God of freedom, help me find my way through all that distracts me from the freedom you desire for me.