When Jesus was preparing His disciples for His imminent death, He reassured them with these words: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). When you invite Jesus into your life, He comes into your heart spiritually and takes up residence in your heart. Such love! No wonder the Apostle John wrote that “we love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV).
But sadly, for some Christians over time the relationship becomes a routine formality. They forget how much the Lord has done for them, and that first wonderful love they had for Him gradually fades. They neglect to make their relationship with God and His kingdom their first priority, as Jesus taught His followers to do (Matthew 6:33).
Jesus taught His followers how important it was to honor God first and foremost in their lives. He knows that we won’t be committed, strong and fruitful Christians if we are not placing Him at the center of our lives.
What practical steps can we take to not only put Jesus first in our lives, but also to keep Him in that place? It starts with our daily walk with Him. We can commit our day, our time, and our lives to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to guide us in His will. This prayer principle holds true in our everyday work as well. When faced with pressing deadlines, the temptation is often to crowd the Lord out of our lives and concentrate solely on our work. But relegating our relationship with the Lord to a place of lesser priority is not the solution.
Great Christians are great not only because of their service to God, but because of their close relationship and fellowship with Him. The more they grow in their faith and walk with the Lord, the more like Him they become. Unfortunately, a common mistake we can make as Christians is to become so engrossed in the work of the Lord that we neglect the Lord of the work! Jesus says, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NKJV).
We cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power, and to receive His power, we must spend time with the Master. Sometimes we get so busy serving Him that we forget to love Him! God appreciates the service we offer Him and He needs it, but He wants our attention and adoration and intimate communication too.
To neglect your fellowship with the King of kings can be disastrous to your spiritual life and walk with the Lord. Placing Jesus first in our lives not only involves His work in sharing the gospel with others, but also putting His Word first in our lives. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1,14). God’s Word is food for the soul and it’s essential to our spiritual growth.
We also put Jesus first in our lives through prayer. We can do so by taking prayer time every morning to start the day off right. When you wake up, before talking to anybody, talk to Jesus first. Commit your day to Him, cast all your cares on Him and ask Him to direct your path that day.
Take the time to read His Word in the Bible and seek His guidance to strengthen your faith for the day. We all need a daily dose of God’s Word and prayer to be prepared for whatever we may face in a day. On the one hand, Jesus says, “Without Me you can do nothing,” but on the other hand, the Bible says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV). That strength starts by seeking God through prayer and the reading of His Word.
Do you have Jesus and His Word and prayer in the proper perspective in your life? Do you give them first place? Or do other things crowd God and His Word into second or third place? In every area of our lives, we are called to put God in first place and to commit all things to Him in prayer and worship (Philippians 4:6–7). The Bible tells us to: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).
Jesus said, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Your heavenly Father knows that you need these things.” And He went on to say: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:31–33). To “seek first” means to put God and His kingdom first and foremost in our lives, above everything else.
You’ll never lose by seeking first the kingdom of God!