What does it mean to put God first? Does God take priority in your life? What does this look like on a heart level and practical level day-to-day?
What’s the greatest deed we can perform as a Christian? This is a perfectly valid and normal question to ask. Our faith calls us to many actions: love, forgiveness, hope, but what action is the greatest? Someone in Jesus’ day was wondering the same, though for a different reason, and they took the opportunity to ask Him.
“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?'
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’” (Matthew 22:34-38)
This gives us much-needed clarification. Putting God first in our lives should be our foremost concern as Christians. When we talk about people or things that we love or strongly enjoy, God should be at the top of the list. Only then are we fulfilling this primary commandment.
Though we now know this, Jesus’ words in the passage do not give us an automatic answer for living out this truth. Thankfully, God’s Word has answers available to us if we are willing to search a bit further.
What Does It Mean to Put God First?
“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)
What does it mean to put God first? To put anything first in life is to hold something as a priority. We can determine our priorities based on where we devote most of our time and energy. Someone who prioritizes their job spends most of their day working or thinking about work. Someone who prioritizes family will frequently be engaged with family activities. In both examples, the priority is valued above other things, whether people or activities.
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The same is true when we put God first in our lives. Holding God as our priority means focusing on God throughout the day and giving Him much of our time. Some examples of engaging with God include: prayer, attending church, participating in a Bible study group, or simply soaking up Scripture.
Naturally, our relationship with God operates differently from our relationships to work or family. On average we work eight hours a day to make a living. Not many people will claim to spend this amount of time in church or even prayer. Likewise, we spend time with our family, caring for our spouse or for our children. All this time devoted to work or family is seemingly time we do not give to God. We are not even physical with God as we are with work or family.
Since our connection with God differs from the other areas, putting God first means keeping Him in mind when engaging with other people or activities. We can prioritize God without always being in church. We achieve this by seeking to glorify Him with all that we do. Scripture informs us as much.
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Truly, everything we do in life as Christians should be done to honor God. This verse mentions such mundane and daily activities like eating and drinking. If God is kept in mind with every choice we make, then we are making Him the priority no matter what responsibility we fulfill. What we come to learn through this approach in life is that there are some activities we partake in that do not honor God.
If we want to keep God first in our lives, we will omit the relationships or activities that do not bring Him honor. In short order, we will begin to witness God in all of our lasting relationships, circumstances, and various responsibilities.
Why Should We Put God First in Life?
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Now that we understand what putting God first means, we must answer another question. Why should we put God first in our lives?
Our commandment as Christians, as given by Jesus, is to prioritize God. Following God requires obedience to His tenets. The same was true of believers in the Bible. The same is true of believers today. Though for an unbeliever and people in general, the idea of putting God first may not resonate well by focusing on the commandment aspect alone.
For another perspective, take into account the results of putting God first. Not only do we bring God honor and fulfill the greatest commandment, but there are a myriad of other benefits. One of which includes being a recipient of His perfect peace (Philippians 4:7). This peace is described as transcending all circumstances, meaning that when faced with adversity, because we focus on God, we will not see the problem as bigger than God. Instead, we recognize that God is always bigger than the problem.
An additional benefit of putting God first is being able to fulfill the second greatest commandment – loving others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). Without acknowledging God’s love for humanity, we will not ever be able to truly appreciate our neighbors. God’s love for people gives us reason to call someone a neighbor and not an enemy. As our reality shows, along with nations in the Bible, people are prone to dissension. If we hold God first in our lives, we are more likely to choose God over self in our interactions with others. We are more likely to prioritize them over ourselves.
There are clear benefits to putting God first, and the commandment Jesus gave is honest and direct. Now that we know the why and what, we can seek practical ways to ensure God is the first in our lives.
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7 Practical Ways to Put God First
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-3)
1. Spend Time with God
We know that the people and activities that get most of our time are what we care most about. By shifting our focus more to God, we will do better at acknowledging Him throughout every moment of every day. Much like we have specified times for work or hanging out with a friend, we can schedule time with God to ensure the engagement.
Try praying for a set time when we first awake, or before going to bed. We could choose to keep a prayer journal or set ourselves to memorizing Scripture. Whatever we decide, the end result is a tighter bond with God.
2. Pray Daily
God wants to hear from us, and one way to do that is through prayer. We can pray by thinking, speaking aloud, or writing our thoughts to God on paper. Each route establishes communication with God, our Father, our Provider.
Bible figures like Habbukuk and David reveal just how intimate we can get in our conversations with God. While there is honesty in our relationships with spouses or children, nothing compares to what we can have with God. He observes us in every waking moment (Psalm 139:2). The Bible encourages us to pray so that we can make our requests known to God, gain wisdom for following Him, and give God our thanks.
3. Thank God Continually
Can we truly appreciate any activity or person without being grateful for their existence? The same question applies to God and the life He has given us. Scripture exhorts us to give thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Giving God thanks is a sign of humility and our dependence on Him. When we offer thanks then, we bring Him honor because we reflect on how much we value God.
4. Ask God How You Can Serve
Praying to God also opens us to learning more about God’s will for our lives. Jesus identified the greatest commandments, but there are many others to follow. Like figures in the Bible, God may call us to support someone or into a particular vocation. Without praying to God we will remain unaware of His wishes for us.
5. Read Scripture Daily
In order to understand what being a Christian means, we cannot solely rely on our feelings about right or wrong, or the guidance of other people. God’s Word is the first place we should go for trying to discern how God wants us to live (2 Timothy 3:16). In the Bible we find many of God’s tenets and reasons He desires our obedience. Scripture supplies us with a great deal of wisdom about how to best live and serve both God and others. The more information we have the more we show God how much we value Him. Other people will naturally bear witness to our burgeoning faith.
6. Fast
Scripture indicates that we can only serve one master (Matthew 6:24). Fasting is a great way to test whether we value something over our relationship with God. We may choose to fast from food, electronics, or specific activities, all in an effort to promote our connection to God. If God is to be our priority or first love, we have to be willing to make sacrifices to ensure this.
7. Obey Him Always
We may not always like what God does in our lives, or like what God did in the Bible. However, knowing Scripture means realizing how God knows far beyond what we could ever know. God is smarter, wiser, and more powerful than any person can ever become. Thus, when God issues a commandment, our duty is to trust and follow Him in whatever direction He takes us. In the end we will not be disappointed, but we will if we do not put God first in our lives.
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