HEY GEHMS (that’s my name for all the followers of Give Em Heels Ministries for Moms) Thanks for continuing to walk 👠with me.
In my last post we talked about putting GOD first, how important it is, how difficult it can be and how putting God first can lead to a fruitful life. In case you missed that conversation stop right here, take a quick minute, go back, read the blog post and feel free to post & leave a comment. Let me know what struggles you may have with identifying and choosing what comes first.
Now let’s move forward and talk about what putting God first looks like in a practical more day to day sense. In this blog, I want to be able to share strategies with you that can help you be successful in this area of your life; strategies that I learned completely on my own through trial and error, that actually worked for me. Before we start, Here’s a few questions to ponder as we begin this discussion of practical ways to put God first.
These were questions I had when I first became a Christian and when I was struggling with prioritizing GOD.
Q1: How does one actually learn ‘HOW’ to put God first? And if you ever learn HOW to…
Q2: How do you learn the actual ‘VALUE’ of doing so on a daily basis?
These are two separate questions concerning putting God first. We will address the first one today and next time we will address the latter.
So here we go…
What’s the secret formula to putting God first? I mean is there a secret formula or isn’t there? Is there a way that we can assure ourselves that no matter what seasons of life we find ourselves in we can be sure that we won’t fail at prioritizing God?
I wish I could tell you there is a play by play book that can help you, but (nope) there is not. It’s true! There isn’t any one copyrighted piece of material that can give you an exact, fail proof, spot on, step by step instruction that will tell you what to do to put God first in your life (especially in every season). That’s because learning to put God first is a very individual thing, a process of continual surrender and growth that happens in day to day communion and experience with God. It’s also because, even if there were an A-Z list of steps and a formula you could simply follow, you’d never experience the deep value of relationship that is gained as you travail and learn to overcome the challenges that get in the way of you putting God first. When you circumvent having to put any original effort into the development and processes that are fundamental to learning how to be in personal relationship with GOD & put him first, you cheat yourself out of divine intimacy & a personal love not known to all mankind.
If the process of discovering what it takes for GOD to be the priority in your life doesn’t cost you something, than efforts to employ what you’ve discovered will have limited & temporal value. There is no success without a process and without enduring the process, You cannot win at prioritizing GOD.
We must learn that God is not ‘a priority’ he is THE PRIORITY.
This brings me to a great point I want to make.
In recent times, during last years Easter Holy Week to be exact, I took time to retrace Jesus’s steps toward the cross that entire week and I found myself so moved by what it must have taken for Christ to maintain his own God ordained mission. I wondered, how was Jesus able to keep the mission towards the very purpose that he was birthed to complete (out front) all while carrying the desperate needs of humanity in his heart and not becoming distracted?
This is not a theological interpretation of Jesus’s heart at that moment (it’s just my opinion) but it’s like Jesus had a heartset (yea I made my own term-i know—work with me here) in that season that spoke loudly through his actions. I could imagine hearing his heart pounding to the beat of a rhythm that clanged “I’m doing this for GOD the FATHER (in obedience to his will) but I’m also doing it for them (humanity, the broken ones, the ones I love). Jesus traveling to the cross was on a GOD (the father) mission and he was persistent to keep God first despite the many emotions & trials he faced. In my mind I cannot phathom the thoughts, ideas or gut wrenching love that must have been passing through Jesus’s man spirit that caused him to walk toward the cross so willingly and die a wretched death for humans as wish washy, unreliable, unloving, sinful and downright noncommittal as us. My mind is blown just trying to phathom this kind of focused obedience.
But the Bible gives us a clue about this love and tenacity that Jesus showed: (Luke 22:42)
In the garden of Gethsemane, in the place where we are told that Jesus sweated out blood while thinking about his upcoming sacrifice, Jesus released his agony saying nevertheless not my will but your will be done. That example of my saviors cry in the garden that day becomes a pattern for our own process; a pattern for learning strategies to keep God first in our own lives.
Here are Several things I have gleaned from the passage of scripture that can help toward putting God first:
Learning to put God first means you must be willing to observe his son. Jesus is forever our example of loving God best.
Putting God first is an act of the will. Jesus was laser focused on his life task even enduring (willingly) the painful process of dying on a cross.
Putting God first requires humility (laying down know it all spirits, prideful desires to walk in the direction of your own way instead of the way God desires) and acting in surrender like the LORD (not my will God but yours be done)
Putting God first means firmly establishing a direction that moves intentionally toward God and towards his purposes (like Jesus who moved intentionally toward the cross).
Here’s a few other things I have learned from observing Jesus’s life & the scriptures in general:
•Putting God first means taking time to be alone with God (in separate and secluded from others)~Matthew 14:23
•Putting God first means spending quality time in Gods WORD to us (the Bible); so that we might grow to know him more and more as we live daily on this earth~Romans 15:4
•Putting God first means growing in obedience to the will and desires of God and living on earth in a fashion that God can be pleased with. God should be able to take view of your external and internal lifestyle and be pleased about your growth (not your perfection) but your growth~John 14:15
Learning these few things taught me that in a time long ago when I thought I had a relationship with God-I really did not. When I thought I was putting him first I really was not. I see now with so much clarity how my life (back then) was void of intention to know Gods son (Jesus) and how the depth of my unwillingness to shed my will for GOD’s will; faltered my life. I see now that my life was full of selfish pride and selfish direction and that the only thing I knew about surrender was the fact that it is a war time word. In retrospect, my life was void of movement toward God and in so many ways it was totally directionless. I had ‘no aim’ and my life was so out of order because I hadn’t a clue what it meant to put God first, nor the value that it bestows upon one’s life.
But today things are different, because of Holy Week and Jesus’s passion to walk a week towards his CROSS, my relationship with God has been established, my shortcomings have been exposed, my sins have already been forgotten about and my debts have already been paid.
JESUS put us all FIRST.
JESUS put me FIRST.
JESUS put you FIRST.
As such how can we ashamedly not return the favor in every single thing that we do.
Dear Sister: Jesus was the first to love you what will you do first to love him back?
Think About it...
Then Go…
Grab your Heels...
Click Em (Toward Your Obedience)
And Give God Some Praise.
He’s Worthy!
Luhh You Mommy Shar 💋
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