Devotion 

False Gods 

Frances Taylor 

Moses spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain and the people were frightened. Okay, God had performed many feats of power in Egypt to get Pharaoh to let them leave. He blocked the chariots of Pharaoh's army so that they could escape, he dried up the water so that they could reach dry land, fed them with manna and fowl in the desert so they wouldn't go hungry and they promised to obey God's commandments, and now they were worshipping a golden calf. What had God not done that they didn't trust him? We can look at them and say that they were fools, but they could probably look at us and say the same. When we remember all that God has done for us, why don't we trust him? Now we don't go out and carve an idol out of gold, or even wood, but we do manage to find idols just the same. Sometimes the idol is ourselves because we feel that we are the only one we can trust. For some the idol is money which people think can solve all the problems of the world. Sometimes it's drugs or alcohol which we might use to forget about the problems we think we can't handle. What happened to our trust?

Prayer 

Lord, you have given us so much, you have blessed us with your presence each time we called on you, and yet we have difficulty trusting you. Give us the graces we need to go to you first, when we need help and to avoid false gods. Amen.