The Daniel Fast

The Rainbow Pen!

 

Seeking First Things First

 

 

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:31-34 NKJV).

In Seeking First Things First, Christ tells us that we should not worry about our daily needs. God is aware that we need these things. If we put God, His Kingdom, and its righteousness first, the things we need in life will be provided to us. The righteousness of God - the righteousness of Christ - is what gives a right and title to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is what God approves of, accepts, and imputes, and which only can justify in His sight. What does it mean to put God first? Is it easy to put things in front of God? Yes, everyday there is a constant battle between what God wants us to do and what we want. We may not realize it, but putting God first grows harder. From issues of morality to our everyday lives of our jobs and the people we meet. Our God is a jealous God. God demands our complete attention; God will not take second place. He will only take first place or no place. It means doing the will of God regardless of what the world thinks, say or do to us.  It means being willing to stand up for the Holy Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, even when everyone else is being silent. We are to be an example to those who we interact with on a daily basis. This is perhaps one of the toughest things to do due to peer pressure.

In Seeking First Things First, we cannot have our money in one place and our hearts in another. We either honor or dishonor God with our money. There is no neutral ground. For instance, when we give God a tip or some change, leftovers or as an after-thought, we dishonor Him with our money! Money plays a large role in our lives. God has a plan for our money. A simple and practical way to put God first with our money is by consistently setting aside for God the first tenth of our income; this is called tithing. When we do that, we have laid a foundation for honoring God with our money. Our money is holy and we offer it in worship to God. Without this offering our worship is incomplete. Bringing an offering gives us access to God's courts. There is nothing more holy we can offer to God than ourselves. When we give our money to God, we are giving Him our time and strength, our talents and inheritance. We put our efforts into the work that brings our income. God keeps a record of what we offer. Christ watches how and what we give, and He estimates its true value. When God measures what we give, He looks at what we retain for ourselves. The key to our prosperity is that we give God the first tenth of everything that God provides for us.

In Seeking First Things First and to know the real blessing and overruling of God in our lives, we need to bring our money into line with the will of God as revealed in His Word. This will bring harmony and health, prosperity and success to our whole life. Failure and poverty, frustration and defeat are not God's will for our lives. God requires us to test Him with our finances and we must act in faith. We don't have to be without money, but we must not put money or financial pursuits first place. Our attitude toward money actually reveals our attitude toward God Himself. We cannot serve two masters, God and Mammon. Mammon is the evil spiritual power that works in the world and in people's lives through their attitudes toward money. We need to hold on to God and despise Mammon, rather than hate God and love Mammon. This attitude is not hating money, but loathing that satanic force that enslaves people through money. When we honor God with our wealth by giving Him the first fruits, all our material and financial needs will be abundantly supplied and will overflow. Many people have made money their god rather than the true God. They are guilty of idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. When you seek money first, you make money your god!

In Seeking First Things First, we need a plan if we are to live by God's priorities and obey His call to us; our lives are complex and demanding. God's order for priorities makes the day-to-day decisions easier and simpler. Living a life of priorities will enable us to order a cluttered life and to see more clearly when the storms of life start to rage. The really important tasks or priorities in our lives must be: Loving God, Serving our spouses, Bringing up our children, Caring for a home, Developing ourselves, Ministering to God's people, and Sharing with friends. Knowing what our priorities are and practicing them, keeps us fully focused on the most important thing at hand at any given moment if our life. These priorities are offered us to help make decisions on how to spend our time and energy. They will help us gain greater control over our lives and lifestyles. As we strive to live according to God's priorities, we also need to be flexible. We must be evaluating along the way what real priority is for that moment with each new event or crisis, person or purpose. The choices we make are key to the priorities we practice. Always choose good over evil, better over good, and best over better. Your choices are your destiny!

In Seeking First Things First, we stand on the promise that as concerns our finances and material needs, these things God will provide for us, but first we must trust God and obey Him. There’s one thing that is added to our lives if we seek God first, and that’s the gift of Salvation. This gift isn’t free as Christ gave his life so that we might have a chance to live with Him one day in Heaven. We get the idea sometimes that once we put the Kingdom of God and Christ first that everything will be ok. That is not what this Scripture says. This Scripture is a reassurance that God will always look after us if we put Him first in everything we do. He doesn’t expect perfection from us, but He expects us to do His will to the best of our ability. If you have not put God first in your life, you can start by becoming a Christian, starting to become Christ-like. We have a duty to Christ to defend His name in word and in action. Pursuing money is such an awful strain and leads to so much frustration. Let money pursue us as we follow the right course of seeking Christ and His righteousness in our lives. We don't have to lie awake at night or spend hours hatching plans to get rich. God is faithful. The principle of putting God first always pays off!