Matthew 6:33 “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." This episode is about how important it is to put God first. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Putting God First Is Hard Sometimes
Matthew 6:33 “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
“Strive first for the kingdom of God.” This sounds easier than it is. It seems like it would make sense that we would strive for the kingdom of God. Who doesn’t want to go to heaven, right? However, there is so much in this world that distracts us from the kingdom of God. Our attention is being pulled in so many different directions. There are so many ways we can choose to fill our time. There are so many distractions in our day to day life, especially in today’s society. When I was younger if you had a favorite TV show, you had to wait a whole week in between episodes. Now-a-days, you can sit on the couch and watch an entire series in one day, or one week depending how long it is. Tony and I sat on the couch for an entire Saturday after Christmas and watched the whole Mandalorian series.
With Netflix and Hulu, and all the other ways to stream TV shows and movies, it is so easy to lost in watching TV and forget about everything else. Also, so many of us are wasting so much time on our smart phones. Between scrolling on social media like Facebook or Instagram or playing various apps on our phones like candy crust or solitaire, we are wasting hours of our time. If we are filling our days with things of this world, then we don’t have time to strive for anything else. How are we spending out time? Are we putting God first, or are we fitting Him wherever we can?
Someone at my prayer group received this word today, “My children, I tell you if you seek first my kingdom I will bring order in your life. I will share my wisdom with you. I am always your God, there is none other like me. Seek not anything else. I tell you again, seek my kingdom, seek my will, place it first in your life and you will have found less strife. My children I love you. Imprint that deeply in your heart. I am your God and I am to be placed first.” Then she said she got the impression that the Lord is almost sorrowful that He is not the one being placed first, all the things of the world are being placed first, so this is why He keeps telling us to place Him first if we want the good things of the Lord in our life He has to be placed first. We have no time for Him, but we have time for everything else. She could almost feel a deep hurt that He has by us not placing Him first.
When I heard this I felt like it cut right through me. I know God was talking to me, was He talking to you too? I know I have been putting other things before Him lately. For instance, I will sit on the couch and watch 3 episodes of a tv show with my husband after dinner, even though I know that I haven’t finished writing my episode for the podcast yet. If I haven’t finished writing it, then I definitely haven’t finished recording and editing it. That is not placing God first, that is fitting Him in when I can. That is me, putting things of this world first and putting God last. It makes me so sad to think that God is deeply hurt by this.
It makes sense that He would be. How do we feel when our friends, parents, children, spouse put everything else before us? I owe everything that I have and everything that I am to God. He provides for me every single day. He is so generous and so loving. He is continually answering my prayers and those of my family and friends. He shows up every single day to write these podcast episodes with me. He doesn’t get a single day off. He not only has to be on call all the time, He is always at His best. How do I repay God for all that He has done and continues to do for me? I watch TV instead of showing up for our time together. I hit snooze and sleep in instead of meeting Him for our morning prayer time. I ask so much of the Lord. I have some pretty big prayer requests in to Him. I am asking Him to do the impossible and to cure the impossible. I am asking for so much and yet, I am not doing the things He is asking me to do.
Can I change this, yes, but not without His help. The first step is recognizing where we’re letting God down and where we’re placing other things above Him. Unfortunately, I needed God to come right out and say it to me before I woke up and saw what I was doing. Now that I am awake I need to decide what to do about it. I heard God loud and clear that I am placing other things, everything else above Him and that He is really sad about that. Now what do I do? The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone because we are all putting different things ahead of God.
For me, I know that I am placing sleep, TV, and distractions on my phone ahead of God. By sleep I don’t mean that I should give up all my sleep to pray all the time. I know how important sleep is. Prayer is also important and when I choose to press snooze for an hour instead of meeting God for our appointed time, that is not ok. I am also not saying that watching TV, scrolling on social media, or playing games on your phone are bad. These things in moderation are fine. However, when I have made a commitment to God to write a new episode of this podcast everyday and then before I have done that I proceed to watch 3 hours of television, that is not moderation. Also, I am giving my best to TV instead of to the Lord. When do you think I would be at my best to write and record an episode, at 7 PM or at 10 PM? Ideally it would be great if I could get the episode written and recorded before the end of my work day, but I end up getting distracted on my phone and then I don’t get it done.
The reason I am telling you all of this is because I want to be open and honest with you. I want you to know that I struggle with all the things that I talk about. When I am writing these episodes I am talking to myself just as much as I am talking to you. When I heard that word today it was as if God was talking directly to me and you know what, I know He wasn’t just talking to me. I know I am not the only person that is struggling with putting God first. Living the life that God wants us to live is not always easy. Sometimes we may have to choose to do what He is asking us to do, instead of what we want to do. This past weekend was a perfect example of this and a perfect example of how I failed to put God first. Tony and I had friends visiting for the weekend. We had such a great time hanging out with other adults as we don’t do that very often. Our friends were still here Sunday morning and we didn’t plan ahead to know what we were going to do about mass. It just so happens that they left at 10:20 and our mass right down the road is at 11. Perfect timing right? Except, we hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, and we really wanted to relax and watch an episode of TV. Yes, I am serious. We chose to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat breakfast instead of going to church. I still can’t believe we did. Actually I can because it is hard to do the right thing sometimes. And if we are not in the habit of putting God first, unfortunately, it gets easier and easier to make the wrong choice.
Do you see why I know that God was talking to me with His statement this morning? I didn’t want to write that last part. I didn’t want to tell you all that I didn’t go to mass this Sunday. However, I felt the Holy Spirit kept bringing it up and reminding me of it and so maybe someone needed to hear that. Maybe someone needed to know that they are not alone, that someone else struggles with putting God first or with doing what they know is right. I want to put God first, I truly do. I feel that with every fiber of my body. Every time I do something like I did last Sunday, I remember what St. Paul says 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.” I know I want to live the way the Lord wants me to live. I know that when I mess up, like I did last Sunday, that is not who I am, that is just something I did. I can continue to try to put God first in my life. It is a process and I won’t get it right all the time, and that’s ok. As long as I keep coming back to the Lord and repenting when I mess up, I will get there someday. I don’t think God is looking for perfection, I think He is looking for our effort and our persistence. I think we please God when we keep trying again and again. I am going to keep trying to put God first, will you keep trying with me?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we hear you. We understand how it may hurt you that we are putting everything else ahead of you and we want to stop doing that. We need your help Lord. Please give us the wisdom, strength and courage to put you above everything. Lord, help us to put your will and your wants above ours. We know how much better our life would be if we put you first, and we are asking for you to help us do that. We love you Lord, you are our everything and we would have nothing without you. We know this. We are so sorry for putting you last. We repent for making time for everything else in our lives and then being too busy for you. We thank you for all that have done and continue to do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!