Gotta Be Number One

Dear Friends,

“Seek God first.” That seems to be the theme for today - both in my conversations, as well as in my own thoughts. To be honest, I've always thought this is one of those principles of the Christian life that's easier said than done. It sounds so simple doesn’t it? All we have to do is seek God before we look to anything, or anyone else. So we quickly say to God, “Yes, I'll do that!” But then the problems and challenges come up and we quickly bump God into second or third place as we go about trying to handle situations without Him. It happens in both the big and small things in life. For example, if the day doesn't go the way we had planned, or we get a phone call with bad news, or we realize we have more bills than we have money in the checking account, we can so quickly forget that we agreed to seek God first. And instead, we turn to others, or to some habit, or to our own wisdom to try to handle the situation.

But if we believe that God is in control, and we’ve said we’ll follow Him, we need to stop that pattern. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus tells us, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” In other words, we need to give our entire attention to what God is doing in our lives - right now. And if we do, God will be faithful to help us deal with whatever is happening. 

So how exactly do we do this? Well, I think we begin by putting God first at the beginning of our day. This means getting up and spending time with Him in prayer and in the reading of His Word. When we do this, it adjusts our mindset - taking our focus off of ourselves and all that we need to get done - and instead, it puts it where it belongs: on God. It's amazing how much strength and peace we receive, and how much better-equipped we are to deal with each day if we simply begin the day by putting God first and spending time with Him.

Then, as we go through the day, we need to ask God to remind us to turn to Him as situations come up. 1 Chronicles 28:9 assures us that:  “If you seek Him, He will be found by you.” So if we turn to God as we encounter different situations throughout the day, we WILL find Him. And when we find Him, we will also find His wisdom and comfort and strength - and everything we need to make it through whatever life throws at us.

So today, let's commit to truly putting God first. Let’s ask Him to help us make spending time with Him each morning a priority. Then, as we head into the day, let's ask Him to give us a desire to seek Him out as we deal with different situations - seeking His wisdom, His strength, His plan and His peace.

Amen?

Daniel