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Surrender, or giving up on all other gods or saviours, that is the first commandment. We reach for so many things, hoping thereby to deal with our feeling of essential not-rightness. We have tried food, and food restrictions, we have tried sex, and celibacy, we have tried alcohol or other drug abuse, or people abuse. We have tried being good, or dressing right, or knowing the right theology.

If we'll get honest, we must still admit to our inner sense of not-rightness. When we have admitted our powerlessness and given up on all these other saviours, and let God deliver us from their houses of bondage, then we have no other gods before Him, and we find hope in Him.

And then all the other nine commandments follow just as promised by the New Covenant, that He will write His law in our hearts, our very desires and impulses. These commandments, then are descriptive as well as prescriptive, somthing like the promise in Psalm 91:5, "Thou shalt not be afraid."

Let us then follow down the other nine commandments:

2. Having come to hope in God, we need no mere images of hope.

3. We need no careless God-talk, for our connection with Him is by firm decision.

4. We take time to remember God and renew our surrender.

5. We affirm that surrender needs continuing relationships.

6. Feeling accepted ourselves, we can express respect and acceptance of others, affirming life all around us.

7. Depending on God, we need not look to some new partner for healing or for fixing.

8. Our new inner security frees us for thorough restitution.

9. Because He trusts us, in His presence we feel enabled to examine our motives and become authentic persons for Him.

10. Content in Him, we have freedom to continue growth even as regarding the deepest motives of the heart.