The Lord desires for you to place Him first in your life, but he also knows it can be hard with all of the things of this world distracting you. Putting God first needs to be your top priority. When you choose to put God first your life will be filled with joy and peace. But when you choose to place other things before the Lord your life can and will leave you feeling hollow, hurt, and alone.
There was a time in my life when I struggled to put God first and I felt guilty and ashamed because of it. I felt like I was disappointing him because I still wasn’t putting him first every day. I felt that if I didn’t worship him in the mornings like Joyce Meyers and Charles Stanley (Best selling author and speaker) did then I wasn’t worshiping him at all. They said mornings were the best time to spend with the Lord. So I tried it and failed at it. I couldn’t seem to get myself up early enough to spend time with him. And when I did wake up early I would put other things first before my time with the Lord. It was sad that I couldn’t even find 10 min of my time to devote to God.
So in prayer, God showed me two obstacles that were stopping me from spending quality time with him. He first showed me Jeremiah 1. The whole chapter focuses on God giving Jeremiah a task that he feels he is not good enough to do. He tells God he is too young and God replies “Do not be afraid for I will give you the words to speak and I will always be with you.”
I too felt that I was unable to do this simple task of putting the Lord first in my life. But God was telling me to not feel that way. He said I am worthy and capable of doing any task that he gives me.
The second obstacle was that I was listening to others and putting their ways of spending time with God before asking God what He thinks I should do. I needed to be asking God how He would like me to spend time with him and when he would like me to spend time with him. Instead, I was doing it the way Joyce Meyers and Charles Stanley were doing it. And I was beating myself up for it when I couldn’t accomplish it.
God continued to tell me in prayer to not listen to what others are doing or saying. He told me to listen to him. Now there is nothing wrong with getting Christian advice but you should know that God’s opinion is the most important and that his ways are better than your ways.
BENEFITS OF PUTTING GOD FIRST
Here are a few benefits to putting God first in your life.
You will experience his peace.
Putting God first releases you from the burden of worry because you know he is in charge of everything in your life.
You will experience joy and happiness.
You will have joy because you know that no matter the situation it will all turn out for your good. (Romans 8: 28)
You will receive wisdom.
God generously gives wisdom and direction when you seek him. (James 1: 5)
You will experience clarity and a sense of purpose.
You will know that you were put on this earth to glorify and spread the news of Jesus Christ to the unsaved. Whereas other people are constantly living their life in search of meaning. (Matthew 28: 18-20)
CONCLUSION
Knowing God has an excellent plan for your life gives you a good reason to put him first. And it may be a task that is hard for you to do with all the things you have to do. But when you ask the Lord to help you find time to put him first he will help you do that. And even if it is just 10 min a day it is better than nothing at all. Think about what or whom you put first before the Lord and pray for things to change so that you will begin to experience all God has for your life.
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