In Matthew 6:33(NLT), Jesus Christ said, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” This is a commandment of our Lord, and every believer must seek God’s Kingdom first to become all that He wants us to be. All we have to do is look around at the condition of the world, and it shows us the results of not putting God first. Many people have turned their backs on God, but He is not punishing us. 1John 1:5(NLT) tells us, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Punishment is darkness, and God is all light. There is so much chaos and confusion in the world because the consequences of not caring for one another and not being good stewards of God’s blessings has caught up with us on a large scale. It demonstrates the degree to which we’ve neglected our Creator and neglected to do what we were placed on this earth to do.
Heavenly Father has been extremely patient with us, but we are approaching a time when we will have to make a choice. Either we are going to believe His Word and choose His love, or we are going to face the consequences of a very wrong choice. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6:24 that we cannot serve two masters; we will either hate the one and love the other, or we will be devoted to the one and despise the other, but we cannot serve both. We are not built to do this. We are created in the image of our Heavenly Father, and our purpose is to walk in partnership with Him throughout our lives. Even with all the craziness in the world, we can still choose God and His love through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what God wants for every person. He wants to be a Father to us all, and He wants to guide, protect, and walk with each of us every day.
Psalm 91:1(NLT) says, “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” This verse conveys the closeness we can have with God. To live in His shelter is to stay in the comfort of His presence and to rest there, protected from all the cares of the world. He invites us to do this, but resting there will require us to strip away the things that take us out of His peace. Isaiah 26:3(NLT) tells us, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” God requires that we take our minds and hearts out of the world, and give them to Him, because only He can bring rest to us and anyone else that desires it.
There are so many distractions in the world, and to fix our thoughts will require a great effort. Through the Apostle Paul, Heavenly Father tells us in Philippians 4:6-7(NLT), “6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” We can see from His Word that God requires our faith in Him. Worry indicates that we have doubt, and He tells us not to do it. And not only does He tell us what not to doubt, He tells us what to do instead. We are to PRAY about everything!
As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must develop a habit pattern of prayer. We should have an intimate dialogue with Heavenly Father. Some people think that they have to make themselves perfect before they can pray to God. He does not require this, because we don’t have the ability to make ourselves perfect. Heavenly Father perfects us in Jesus Christ as we surrender and yield to Him. He does the work. All we need to do is give ourselves over to Him in prayer.
Prayer is not a one-way street. It is a dialogue where we talk to God, He listens, and He talks to us, and we should listen. Our listening requires us to be still in His presence. It is a spiritual communication where it’s not just talk, but transformation is taking place. He’s working some things out inside us. He’s strengthening our inner man, and we can be confident that He’s performing a good work in us. Philippians 2:13(NLT) affirms, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
One of the ways that we keep God first is to begin each day in prayer, to give our days over to the Lord when we awaken each morning. Jesus Christ did this, and we should follow his pattern. God tells us in Jeremiah 29:11(NLT), “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” God is the One with the plan. He knows how to maximize our days and lives, and He also knows exactly what we ought to be doing in order to become the men and women He’s destined us to be. Jesus prayed in the wee hours of the morning that God would take over his day and that he would be led by God’s Spirit. This is the kind of partnership God desires, and we will do ourselves the greatest good by obliging Him.
Brother Adam and Sister Eve got it into their heads that they could operate and manage life without the Father’s help. Boy, did they get that one wrong. It was a disaster for them, and it will turn into a disaster for us if we choose the same path. We desperately need God’s help, and He is oh so willing to give it. We should accept it. He’s our Creator, and He never intended for us to journey through life without totally leaning on Him.
God must be first because that is who God is! He’s first! He said in Revelation 21:6(NLT), “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.” God is first in every way, and we must align our thinking with the reality of His truth. Keeping God first requires us to develop a habit pattern of spending quality and quiet time with Him. We will see such a difference in our lives if we do this. It will be the highlight of our days. We must always remember that God’s number one desire is to bless us. We remain in His blessings by seeking Him first in our decisions and choices and following His lead through the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is how we make sure that we’re giving God the number one spot in our lives, and most importantly, keeping Him first in our hearts. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Keeping God First”, written by JMack, theChristianMan.com© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.