"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain" (Exodus 20:7).  It's a simple commandment.  It requires that we honor the name of the one God, by not using it flippantly, uselessly or for our own purposes.  As is the case with us, God's name, His character and His Word are all tied together.  His name carries His authority.  The Hebrew people understood the gravity of the use of God's name.  In fact, they would not even write out the name of the Lord.  They would honor His name by writing the first and last letters, but leaving the others out. Why, then, do many modern American Christians have such a hard time honoring the name of God?  Maybe I'm being a bit severe, but when I hear a Christian use the Lord's name in vain it causes me to wonder whether or not this person even really believes that He exists.  How can we understand that the almighty God who created and sustains the universe, by whose mercy we are even allowed to live, who put His only Son through unthinkable horror because He loves us and wants to save us from self-destruction, and use His name as an exclamation, and giggle and move on without even a thought?

I say these things in love.  We have to think about what we say.  In Matthew 12:34, Jesus said that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks".  We need to take a hard look at what's in our hearts, if there are things coming out of our mouths that shouldn't be.  How can we expect the world to see the Lord through us, if we talk like we don't even believe that He exists.  God taught us in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ".  I understand that habits can be hard to break.  Our God stands ready to help His children who will come to Him humbly.