Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 6:33(NKJV), “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Most believers know this verse very well, and it is a bedrock to the kind of relationship God desires with every person. When Matthew 6:33 is anchored in our hearts and minds, we’ll realize that there is no part of our lives in which you and I can successfully take the lead. Many of us find this very challenging to accept. Our commitment to make Jesus Christ our personal Lord and Savior means that we relinquish lordship of our existences to him. We desperately need him to take control because we can’t manage life on our own. And the truth of the matter is that God never meant for us to try to handle our own lives singlehandedly. He created us to partner with Him, but we must be careful, because in this partnership there’s a follower and a Leader. We should never try to lead Him. He leads us and learning to follow God requires that we are committed to keeping Him first in all things.
We need only look around at the world today to see in real time what it looks like when folks don’t put God first. It’s a disaster. People have turned their backs on God, and it’s not a good thing, but don’t be tempted to be fearful about how crazy things are. Jesus Christ has told us both the problem and the remedy. The problem began when Adam and Eve decided that they no longer wanted to be under God’s sovereignty but wanted their own. They allowed arrogance to creep in, and arrogance is a very bad deal. It will cause any person to fall and fall hard, because no person or thing is greater than God, and no person or thing can do for us what God can do. Arrogance caused the first couple to dishonor the sovereignty of God, and we must be ever so careful not to let this kind of thinking and attitude creep into our hearts.
God is God all by Himself. He doesn’t need anyone to make Him more than what He is. He’s perfection through and through, and all power is in His hands. Psalm 135:6(NLT) tells us, “The LORD does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths.” Heavenly Father can do whatever He wants to do, and this should make us tremendously thankful, because He desires to love and bless us. We are the apple of His eye. His sovereignty is supreme, His Word is perfection, and His nature is love. Even given His wondrous and amazing Being, still, He desires a relationship with every living person.
God’s love is expressed through us. This brings Him incredible pleasure. Colossians 2:9(NLT) says, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” Through the life and example of Jesus Christ, we can see the perfection of God’s nature lived out in human form, and this fullness of God’s nature in human form can now be lived out through you and I. This is possible because of what Christ accomplished on the Cross of Calvary. God’s desire is that we will keep our hearts open to Him continually so that He can continue the work in us that our salvation in Christ began.
To make sure that we are seeking God first and keeping Him in the number one spot of our lives, the first thing we must do when we awake each morning is to give our days to Him. 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 what we should be doing every single day to make the most of our lives. He wants to lead and guide us through His Holy Spirit, so that we walk according to His Will and Plan for us. Jesus Christ prayed in the wee hours of the morning. He committed his day to God, and he was led by God’s Spirit according to God’s purpose. Heavenly Father did this in the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ, as he walked the earth, and God will also do it for us. It is the partnership He desires.
God must be first because that is who He is. When we increase our thinking to line up with the reality of this truth, we will no longer make decisions and choices without seeking His counsel and wisdom first. We will understand that even the smallest decision we make during the course of a day can alter the outcomes we experience in the future. Not only must we pray that the Lord will keep us each day, but we must pray that He will help us to respond to His Will and Plan more effectively. Philippians 2:5 tells us that we must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had. His attitude was to always do the Will of the Father, and we must have this same heart.
More than ever, we must spend quality time with Heavenly Father. Keeping Him first requires this. Once we develop a habit pattern of spending quiet time with God, we will see such a difference in our lives, and we will crave this time with Him. It will be the highlight of our days. We must be clear that God is more worthy of our attention than we can fathom. Seeking God first means that He is continually in the number one spot in our lives. You and I can say we’re doing this all day long, but the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. The action of seeking God first in our lives will leave evidence. The Lord Jesus Christ affirmed in Matthew 6:33 that the evidence of seeking God first is that “ALL THESE THINGS” will be added to us. We can be confident that blessings and rewards will be ours if we are diligent to keep Heavenly Father first in all that we do.■
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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Keeping God First” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Sundie Morning Sistas is dedicated to spiritual inspiration and encouragement through the Word of God.