God in the Old Testament, provided us with perfect instructions on how to follow His way. One instruction in particular tells us how to avoid producing a certain type of unholy trash, including His assertion of what will happen if we ignore this specific rule.

Yet even though we know the consequences that are written by His finger in stone, we still carelessly toss this specific trash daily for all the world to witness. We toss it whether we are angry or happy, alone or in a crowd. And it’s the norm for others to hurl this same trash directly at us and we don’t blink an eye at this particular offense.

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Exodus 20:7

Have you ever misused God’s name? Carelessly tossed His name into a conversation as an expletive? “Oh my G**! We have to get together for lunch.”

Used our God as a common exclamation in happy surprise?  “G**! Your manicure is so cute!”

Or angry disgust?  “J****! How did he fumble that ball again?”

These are examples of sinful verbal trash and this trash does not decompose on it’s own. God has already told us the verdict for demonstrating this offense. “[God] will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” And this verdict can have a lasting negative effect on our souls.

Our loving God knows humans are without fail, faultless in our ability to sin, so He provided a Perfect Plan for our past, present and future transgressions. What a wonderful God we have! He loves us so much even before we were born! And that love was gifted to us in the form of blood, shed from His only son.

Christians, why do we continue to pull down and trash God’s holy name? Trashing it to our human level over petty, minor circumstances. All the while knowing we received the greatest gift of eternal life from the very One whose name we are spewing.

I believe we trash His name out of habit, and thankfully habits can be broken. Take time today in prayer and confess all misuse of His name. Repent and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. Pray today. Pray tomorrow. Repeat the process the next day, etc. Habits take time to feel comfortable, just like breaking in new sneakers. And once we become conditioned, we feel comfortable expressing new habits, good or bad.

So changing a bad habit to good will also take time. Think of a bad habit as old dirty sneakers – smelly and offensive. Now is the time to get comfortable in a new habit. It’s time to change up those offensive sneakers for a new pair. A pair that will race you down God’s perfect path, winning the habit of not taking His name in vain.

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