Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
I make it a goal daily, but I continually fail. I desire with all my heart to place Jesus first in my life. Business creeps in and troubles take away focus.
What does putting Jesus first look like? What does seeking His kingdom first entail? I find clues to fulfilling this desire in Matthew 22: 37-30.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like, unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
As with all things, faith and works collide. It is easy to speak about the importance of loving God, but we all fail. Our own selfish desires impinge and hamper. Just as Paul said in Romans 7: 15.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
The real beauty in our Christian walk is that we can do nothing in our own power. It is faith and His Spirit that lives in us that empowers us. I know it seems funny. Do we lean on Christ to help us love Him more in our weakness? Yes, that is exactly it. It is His sacrificial love that covers us and flows through our veins. He bore our sin of failing to love Him first on the Holy Cross. He forgave us.
We can find freedom and relief in this simple statement. He loves us first so we can love Him more deeply daily. We can rest in the wonderful grace of His love and the truth and promises found in His scriptures in Romans 8.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I wrote this post for the 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes 2019 challenge hosted by Kate Motaung. You can learn more about my series by visiting the series landing page here.
Please also note that I will link this post to blogs listed on my Linkup Parties page.
Loves us first so we can love him more!