How Do We Put God First?

The way that we put God first in our lives is by putting God’s will and plans above our own. We must seek to honor God and live our lives in such a way that He will receive the glory. The place that God wants to be honored and glorified is in the hearts of the believers.

What we see in the lives of the bulwarks of Christianity is really only an outgrowth of their desire to put God first in their lives. They get up and pray for hours on end, they read through the Bible and commit long passages to memory; why do they strive so hard to develop their relationship with God? The answer is that since God is first for them, they spend great amounts of time cultivating their knowledge and relationship with God. To go back to my previous illustration, when people are in love they want to be together and communicate all the time, even so, people who are seriously desirous of knowing God and putting Him first, will go to great lengths and spend large amounts of time fostering that relationship.

“Devotions,” think about that word a minute; the word implies that what you are doing shows your commitment. It is true that the spiritual exercises we do demonstrate our commitment to developing spiritual growth, nevertheless, all these spiritual exercises must be accompanied by a renewed heart and mind. When people are committed to something, what they do in relation to that “something” shows either their hatred or devotion. Devotions should spring out of a desire to know God; without that desire, all the devotions in the world will not get you to heaven. Devotions in the above case merely become rituals that are no different from the Muslims who pray 5 times a day toward Mecca. We must look at our motives and make sure our devotions are fueled by a desire for God and are not just formal procedures done before the commencement of our day.

Let me clarify something here, there is nothing wrong with devotions. I am not downplaying the importance of devotions in our lives, not at all. Nevertheless, the most important thing that we can do is to love the Lord with all our being. Love Him with everything that we are and hope to be. While all the spiritual activities that we do are good, they must be the outworking of a heart that is on fire for God.

Finally, when we put God first in our hearts and lives the outgrowth and result of this is a longing for God, and the devotions and spiritual activities that we engage in are the means by which we satisfy our spiritual hunger. When we are sold out to Christ we can not help but spend time in the Word, seeking our God; we are devoted to Christ and no one and nothing can take away our desire for Him. I pray that I would have this same passion and desire in my own life and that I would put God first in all I do.

Erik