As 2020 quickly approaches to introduce not only a new year, but a new decade as well, I have felt God clearly prompting me to focus not only on First Fruits, but to make sure that I put God first in all things. So, I will borrow the familiar cliché and title this blog series:
FIRST things FIRST.
It’s remarkable to see what will happen when an individual or a couple makes a firm decision to start putting God first. For me it started with tithing and giving, but as I prepared to teach on the subject, God began to show me that first things had so much more meaning than just with money and offerings.
This is the essence of the first commandment God gave Moses to give to His people. In our fast-paced culture today, often the most important things of all don’t shout out with urgency. They don’t scream for attention. They just sit there quietly, being neglected or overlooked. As we live daily in our always-connected world, it’s very easy to live our lives ruled by what we deem as urgent. We leap from crisis to crisis, fire to fire, and we never address the non-urgent but vitally important things that will actually contribute to our long-term success. As a result, we order our priorities all wrong.
Perhaps this is why our gracious God went to so much trouble to help us prioritize things properly. To help us put “first things first." Do you recall what the first of those commandments was? In case it doesn’t come to you right away, the answer is, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
That’s right. The very first commandment is God clearly saying that He must come first in our lives. But in our day, it’s easy for us to shrug off and assume that this commandment is only about Old Testament idolatry and therefore isn’t relevant to us. Even though we may not be tempted to build golden idols in our living rooms, I assure you that idolatry is alive and well on planet earth today. There are many things vying for first place on your list of priorities. Culture is filled with attractive and enticing candidates for your worship and your sacrifice.
How can you know if you are putting God first or if you are worshipping a false god or idol?
What you worship is whatever provides your sense of identity.
What you worship is what gives you a sense of security.
Matthew 6:33- But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Whatever you seek out first – that’s what you worship.
The consistent principle of scripture, from beginning to end, is that if our lives are going to be properly ordered and “blessable,” God must be first. Why? Because He is first. Before anything else. Not only does God demand to be first; He refuses to be second.
When you refuse to put God first, He is still first – the order does not change. If you put your will ahead of God’s will, you place yourself in dangerous territory. It will stop the flow of blessings. The only way back is by redemption – by obeying the law of first fruits. We’ll focus on first fruits in our next blog.
When first things are put first, second things begin to increase – C.S. Lewis
Pastor Jeff
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