Brian's Blog

Putting First things First – Part 1

// January 8th, 2010 // Study Thoughts

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Anyone that’s ever taken any kind of time management class has learned the importance of prioritizing.  We’ve learned about the “tyranny of the urgent,” that if we don’t have our priorities straight we’ll be controlled by things that are pressing in around us.

As Christians, we need to learn to prioritize God’s way.  This is laid out pretty well by Jesus in Matthew chapter 6. In this chapter He talks about;

• How to pray, a structure for our communication with God.
• The importance of forgiveness.
• Being Kingdom minded, building up treasure in Heaven instead of on earth.
• Being careful about what our eyes allow into our spirits.
• That we can’t serve two masters, we can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom of God.

After all of this he talks about not worrying about tomorrow, that God manages to take care of all of nature around us.  If God cares that much about the things around us how much more must He care for us? 

Then comes the statement in verse 33, seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and everything you need will be provide.  In other words, if we put our priority on living in relationship with God and putting His priorities first, everything else will fall into place around us.

Righteousness, simply put, is being in right-standing with God.  We can’t work to be righteous, we receive His Righteousness by accepting the sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin.  It is a free gift from Him, that means that I only have to receive it and apply it to my life!  living righteously means living in right relationship with Him, making choices based on our relationship with Him.

So, when my first priority is relationship with my Heavenly Father and doing what He has called me to do, everything in my life will fall into place.  This is a principle of God, meaning that it works for everyone!

This week will be our first week of “officially” being pastors at Carlton Assembly of God, I have made this verse my New Year’s resoulution, and already we have seen God do some great things.  Just today God provided us with a bigger, nicer house (in Carlton) then the one we are moving out of, for less money than we are currently paying. He has seen the desires of our hearts and as we put His Kingdom first, He is providing us with those things.

We serve an amazing God!  I want to challenge you to make this your verse for this new year, let God transform your life!