Article January 3, 1994 Issue

When calling upon God's power

A deeper understanding of God's omnipotence not only brings a sense of calm and dominion to difficult situations—it brings healing.

Jan Johnston

The Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai are studied and honored by people around the world. These directives are generally accepted as God's law. Christ Jesus' two great commandments, reiterating Old Testament teachings, capture the essence of Mosaic law: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt. 22:37, 39).

At the heart of each of the Ten Commandments is a deep, divine message that's vital to our well-being. Sometimes we think we fully understand the meaning of a particular commandment, only to have prayer and unfoldment show us a deeper meaning—one that we hadn't seen before. This very thing happened to me.

While in the throes of a recent dilemma, I sought to understand more deeply what the Commandments were teaching and what I could do to bring my experience more into accord with God's law. One day during a threatening turn of events, I prayed with some desperation, "God, please help me!" Almost immediately the directive came: "Don't take God's name in vain." I recognized this as the Third Commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" (Ex. 20:7). This thought surprised me, because I had always interpreted this commandment to mean that we should not use the name of God in a derogatory way. And it seemed to have nothing to do with my immediate predicament.

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