The Reality Of Putting Him First

“The Reality Of Putting Him First”

By Zach Wood

Matthew 6:33-34 NIV

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In the sermon this past Sunday at church, this passage was shared and then Lauren Daigle’s song, “First” was played to close out the service.  It was the perfect ending to a great and challenging message.  As I sat there and listened to how we so often make excuses for not putting God first in our lives, I felt so guilty and my heart sank thinking of all the times in my life I have done and still do this.  I am so good at making other things a priority, but then putting His Word on the back burner and saying I’ll get to reading more later.

The clincher of the message was when our pastor challenged us about how so many people say that they are close to God in their own way, but hardly ever read His Word.  He illustrated how other relationships in our lives would be affected if we never actually talked to the person or spent long periods of time away from them.  If we greatly lacked in our communication with our spouse, kids, fiancé, boyfriend, girlfriend, aunt, uncle, best friend, etc., how in the world could we possibly believe we are getting to know them better?  How could we possibly claim to know the person better if our communication with them is little to nothing?

As I sat there and soaked all of this in and listened to the closing song, this question echoed in my mind and heart, “What does putting Him first look like in your life and mine?”  This question has haunted me, so to speak, since yesterday morning.  What would our lives truly look like if we really and sincerely put God first in every part of our lives?  What would the deep down truth of this look like in our lives?

I know in my life, it would look so different than how I am living.  You all have been a part of my writing life for so many years and you know that I try to be very transparent in what I write so that I can try to relate to others who read these writings.  I want to be as transparent as possible so that you all know I am doing my best to be genuine.  I am servant of Christ, a husband and a father.  I try so hard each day to be successful at all 3 of those areas.  But so many days, I feel like I’m doing my own thing and trying to be good enough without actually putting too much effort into it. 

What would it look like for you to put Him first?  Think about that and take some time to let that question sink in.  What would it really and truly look like in your life right now to actually make Him priority over everything else?  Making Him first over every decision you make? 

Do we really seek Him first?