Sunday March 18
We all have habits. The question is: What kind are they? Good or bad? Of all the good habits a Christian could have, seeking God first thing every day would have to be the most important one of all.
“Every morning dedicate yourself, soul, body, and spirit, to God. Establish habits of devotion and trust more and more in your Saviour.” - Ellen G. White, Mind, Character, and Personality, vol. 1, p. 15. With a habit like that, we surely would enter through the “narrow . . . gate” that leads to life (Matthew 7:14, NKJV).
God said, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3, NKJV). Jesus said, in the context of our basic needs, to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33, NKJV), and we have also been told: “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13, NKJV).
Read Matthew 22:37, 38; Acts 17:28; Ephesians 5:15-17; and Colossians 3:23. What is said here that can help us understand how to put God first in our lives?
Of all our examples in seeking the Lord first, none is of course a better one than the example of Jesus. Jesus put His Father first in everything. We begin to see this priority during His Passover visit to Jerusalem as a child. When confronted by His mother, who had found Him “in the temple”, He said to her, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:46, 49, NKJV).
Throughout His life, Jesus craved communion with His Father, as evidenced by His habitual prayer life. This habit was something that the disciples did not fully understand. All the powers of darkness could not separate Jesus from the Father, because Jesus made it a habit to keep totally connected with Him.
We can follow Jesus’ example by making the decision to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Matt. 22:37). By praying, studying God’s Word, and seeking to emulate the character of Jesus in all that we do, we will form the habit of making God first in our life. And for a Christian, what better habit could there be?
Ask yourself: Have I really made God first in my life? How do you know?
