The best life is a God First life
This is not always our first reaction; however, if this were not possible by Christians, God would not have told us to do it.
God knows what’s best for us, and it behooves us to trust Him and keep His commandments.
“To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:20-21 ESV
In God we trust
God First!
– If you feel farther away from God today than you have in the past, the question becomes, WHO MOVED? HINT: it was NOT God.
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8 ESV
It stands to reason that the opposite is also true if we move away from God.
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,” Romans 1:28 NASB
– If there is any evil in it, it is not from God
– God is Love
– God is Good
– All the Time
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” ISAIAH 5:20
Sometimes, we are tempted to blame God when our hearts are torn in anguish and pain. We struggle to reason why tragic things happen to good people, innocent children, loved ones, or maybe to ourselves. We might ask, why me? Why us? Why them? We may experience a tragic loss or have other life-altering events we don’t understand. Crime, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Covid, Heart issues, Blood or Breathing issues, accidents, Lyme disease, to name only a few.
We want an explanation, we want to assign blame, but blaming God is misplaced.
As we see from the scriptures above, there is NO evil in God. There is, however, refuge, hope, and prayers answered. There is the possibility of eternal life in heaven for those who choose to become “In Christ” and keep His commandments according to God’s will, NOT our own.
“For He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)
Satan is the evil one; take refuge in Jesus. When we move away from Jesus, we are moving closer to Satan; closer to forever tears.
Jesus is our only hope for eternal life, where there are no illnesses, pain, or tears. Where our souls will live with new bodies, and our hopes become reality forever in heaven with pure love.
Acts 2:38-41, 1 Peter 3:20-21, Colossians 2:11-13, Romans 6:4-5, John 3:5, Mark 16:16, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5, Matthew 28:19–20, Acts 10:48
God First!
Jesus would not be swayed from His purpose, and His purpose was to do the will of His Father! As Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights, Satan tried but could not sway Jesus. When Jesus was weak and hungry, Satan pushed to exploit Jesus’s hunger and provoke Him to perform a miracle.
Satan: “Tell these stones to become bread.”
Instead, Jesus quotes Scripture, telling Satan that life comes from “Every Word of God.”
Satan then endeavors to get Jesus to prove He is the Son of God by throwing Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. However, Jesus instead quotes scripture: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Satan then shows Jesus the splendor in all the Kingdoms of the World and offers them to Jesus if He will bow down to him.
Jesus tells him: “BE GONE” and quotes scripture a 3rd time.
“You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.”
This is an excellent example of not allowing Satan to sway us from our purpose, but rather of putting God first, seeking all His righteousness, learning His Word, holding fast to it, and trusting God. The full scripture demonstrates that Satan knows scripture and will use scripture to mislead us.
This Scripture is a great example of how knowing scripture can help us overcome temptations and discern the truth. It points out that we are NOT to test God and are to worship and serve God only.
God knows what’s best for us; if we love Him, we will keep His commandments, and through study, we can shew ourselves approved unto God. If God is for us, who can be against us?
May God be with us all!
Matthew 4:1-11
2 Timothy 2:15
Romans 8:31
John 14:15
God First!
I remember a time when my desire to solve “out-of-my-control” situations was so great that it became all-consuming and overwhelming. I had to realize my inadequacy and humble myself to the one person who could help: God!
I am thankful we don’t have to face life’s difficulties alone, aren’t you?
I am grateful that through Jesus we can humbly pray to God, share our concerns, and lay our burdens at Jesus’ feet, trusting that God will provide.
I was feeling overwhelmed by concerns beyond my control when, one night, I decided to turn them all over to Jesus in an in-depth, on-my-knees prayer. It turned into a prayer full of tears and begging. A prayer of repentance for not having already trusted and turned these concerns over to Jesus and God’s loving hands. At the end of that prayer, an unexplained weight lifted from my shoulders. I got up from that prayer, trusting and believing God would help, and He did.
It was NOT a click-of-a-switch change, but rather a ROOT-GROWING change that took time and my trust. From that moment onward, my attitude changed, and I began a lifelong shift that helped me focus on what I could control and pray for what I couldn’t. I came to trust that God’s hands were on my concerns. While I’ve had moments of despair since then, it doesn’t take long to remember and realize I must turn it over to God and Trust God.
There is no better solution!
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV
No need to be Anxious
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
God of All Comfort
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
God First!
Have you ever had someone take credit for your accomplishments? If so, how did you feel about it?
God is treated this way repeatedly as “Scientists” seek, and people believe everything was created by accident rather than by God.
God’s proof is all around us, in Science, Math, and History, which support what we find in Scripture, and that God is the most logical explanation as the Creator of everything we know.
Many actively work to give credit elsewhere. Sadly, the gullible then fall prey to praising the “creations of God” rather than God Himself.
History shows that people inherently desire to worship something; they want to put faith in something they deem greater than themselves. Worship and praise have been given to such things as the moon, the sun, stars, mountains, water, fire, and animals. Innumerable statues have been made, erected, and worshiped, and theories invented, taught, and believed.
Today, many give the credit that belongs to God to those touting disbelief under the disguise of science. Technical-sounding words are coined and used to construct hypothetical theories, then presented as sound science and taught to our children.
Think about it: Theories are being taught to the most gullible, our children, and told it is science.
Our children are taught to believe our creation was a fluke accident where nothing exploded into something, rather than God created everything, that a spec of absolutely nothing, too small for our eyes to see, exploded into something that created planets in a perfect universal placement to provide life on Earth. Then, over billions of years, this accidental mass developed into the perfectly designed world of nature and life we live in today, where animal and human life are natural phenomena, and our human ancestry is monkeys.
– Were you taught this?
– Do you currently lend credence to any of these theories?
– If not from God, where did our intelligence come from?
God gave us free will and said, “Look at the evidence around you.” God would not have given us so much proof if He expected blind faith; nope, God gave us brains, the ability to question, weigh, comprehend, and conclude that the only logical answer is that Design Requires a Designer.
Every woven and intricate detail of this world requires design; thus, the most logical conclusion, supported by science and math, is not an accident but rather that Everything created is God’s accomplishment, and the proof is all around us; any other explanation is fabrication.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
God First!
God gave mankind a unique opportunity. He created us in His image and gave us the ability to give back to Him, the one thing God really wants from His Creation.
“Our Love, by our choice.”
Think about it: Other than your love, what can you offer God?
God is the Creator of everything we know and understand. Everything!
With great and painful sacrifice beyond our understanding, we have been given the opportunity for eternal life with the Godhead: with the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, in a new heavenly home Jesus created for us.
God consistently provides for us, and all He really asks is that we truly love Him as He has first loved us.
Why would we not want to show our gratitude with our every breath?
In His Holy Word, Jesus told us how to show our love by keeping His commandments. Scripture shows us how. There is nothing tricky or confusing about it. Jesus created only one Church, His Church, the One He established, the One He died for, and He told us how to be a part of His Church by becoming in Christ.
Giving of ourselves, showing our love with effort
Jesus said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Jesus also gave us a New Commandment in John 13:34-35. We are to “love others as Christ loved us.”
Scripture demonstrates that what we believe, teach, and set as our example matters to God. Let us never take God’s love for granted, but rather give God the one gift God values most from His creation.
“Our Love” by Our Choice.
In (John 14:15), Jesus explains, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
1 Corinthians 14:33-40 (not confusion)
Matthew 7:21 (Not everyone)
Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 1:4 (One Church)
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (Love)
John 14:2-3 (many mansions)
1 John 4:19 (He first loved us)
God First!
Before my wife’s illness interfered, the following was my typical schedule for planned edification each month in Bible classes and worship with the Church.
The time adds up to around 22 hrs. per month, yet this is only about 6% of my awake hours in a year. Does this number surprise you? It surprised me. I thought it would be much more than 6%.
Is God getting our best effort or a minimum effort? In the story of the rich young ruler, the ruler asked Jesus, “What must I do to receive eternal life?”
When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.” Luke 18:22-23 Apparently, he was unwilling to give up all he had to follow Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t ask us to give our life savings, but; Would we be willing to if He did?
(Especially if we think giving Him a few hours each week is inconvenient.)
It’s a matter of our hearts!
You and I, every person on earth, are so important to God that He gave us His only son as our pathway to eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Jesus, “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,” Galatians 1:4
How much are we willing to give to Him?
Rhetorically:
God First!
I have friends who set family goals to read 1,000 books in a year. Personally, I’m a slow reader, so this goal is truly impressive to me. In fact, when I ordered the book in this picture, “The Utterance of God,”
I ordered it based on my interest in the topic and a friend’s recommendation. This book identifies and demonstrates numerous biblical proofs (many of which I was unaware of); which prove that what we read in the Bible is indeed the actual Words of God.
The Bible claims this fact in 2 Timothy 3:16, where God tells us, “All Scripture is God-breathed…”.
Recognizing, understanding, and comprehending these many proofs found in Scripture proves God as the creator of everything we know and understand; therefore, we should do all within our power to follow Christ according to what we find in God’s Word.
This book of proofs has a nice-sized font, but when I bought it, I did not realize it was over 500 pages. Likewise, the Bible has over 1,000 pages and 750,000 words. Although large books seem daunting to me, I have learned to take the Flaxseed approach to my reading.
Flaxseed was recommended to me for its several health benefits. When I ordered the Flaxseed, and it arrived, I thought, wow, that’s a lot of Flaxseed; how will I ever get through all this? Yet by using just a teaspoon at a time, I have now consumed several containers and am healthier for it.
I am proud to report that I have read every word in this book, “The Utterance of God.” Parts of it were challenging for me to comprehend, but the largest percentage was very easy and extremely informative and interesting. Moreover, I gained considerably by persistently consuming just a few pages at a time over months.
The result: Studying this information strengthened my understanding of God’s Word, highlighted several passages I was unaware of, increased my confidence, and encouraged and emboldened my faith.
Reading good books can provide several benefits for the health of our minds, and reading God’s Holy Word nourishes both mind & soul; it is life’s best guide!
Following God’s Word according to God’s Word is to follow Jesus, and Jesus is our only way to spend eternity with God. (John 14:6, Acts 4:2, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 10:9, John 1:14)
I encourage anyone reading this writing to set aside time to read the Bible.
Don’t predetermine it’s too hard to understand; instead, be persistent with yourself and commit yourself to at least a spoonful of reading per day. Before you know it, just like with the Flaxseed or this book I now recommend, you will have consumed the whole book. It’s a blessing!
God First!
Anybody who knows me should know that I believe in God and that the Bible is absolute, 100% God’s Word.
I believe Jesus is the son of God who lived a perfect life. Jesus allowed Himself to be sacrificed on the cross as it was the only way you and I could be redeemed, forgiven of our sins, and become eligible for eternal life in heaven with our creator.
We cannot EARN forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us.
NO, we are told by scripture (Acts 2:38-42) that it’s through God’s Grace that salvation is offered, and with Great sacrifice.
Nonetheless, to ACCEPT God’s Grace, we must be obedient to God’s will, and the Bible tells us exactly how.
I did not come to these conclusions by osmosis, but rather through much study. I am a strong advocate of personal study of God’s Word and encourage all to set aside what others have told us and seek truth through self-study.
Scripture tells us we are to each work out our own salvation. (Philippians 2:12) Here is the Rub, we can’t do this without truthful knowledge. (2 Tim. 2:15)
This said, I love sharing God’s Word and the salvation God has extended to everyone through Jesus. Scripture instructs believers to share the love of Christ with the world, both boldly and lovingly, and to do so without adding to or taking away from God’s Holy Word.
GOD FORCES NO ONE TO LOVE HIM.
God has supplied us with thousands of years of history (reasons to believe) in 66 books of Scripture, that we may understand why we should want to believe in Him and follow Jesus.
Likewise, I do not verbally or in writing push my understanding on anyone, as all have the option to skip or ignore my post.
Still, instead of ignoring them, I hope you read and find yourself challenged enough to study God’s Word, as my intent is to share God’s Word according to His Word, not as mine, and why I typically include scripture for consideration.
God First!
When we send our kids to school, we intend for them to learn to study and understand the basic curriculum. In college, they pursue degrees, and throughout it all, we will hear them complain, “It’s boring to study, it’s boring to listen, it’s boring to sit through lectures,” yet with effort, they become fluent in new terminology and the details of their chosen professions. In the end, they have accumulated all those boring hours, and it’s worth it!
Reading and studying God’s word can seem boring and daunting. I understand the mindset; It once seemed that way to me.
I looked for answers in what others understood or simply in my reasoning. I had good reason to trust what I was being told. However, it was not until I began studying on my own and attending Bible classes, worship services, and study groups that an accurate understanding of God’s Word began to sink in.
As a result, my once skin-deep faith grew into an all-consuming zeal to share the message of Christ.
Why?
Because our souls’ eternity is decided by our choices.
It’s more important than anything worldly. I need to be able to explain and defend why this is true. (within the pages of scripture), In other words, by sharing God’s Word “as written,” not my words or my ideas.
Regarding God’s word, my boredom with study has become an engaging excitement, with the purpose of sharing. A continuous thirst to grow closer to God with an ever-growing understanding of God’s intent for me and all disciples of Jesus, His commands, His Forgiveness, Mercy, and how we accept His Grace by keeping Jesus’s commands.
I encourage everyone to make a similar effort to grow, as All Truth is in God’s Word.
My quest is to explain, with certainty and boldness, the joy and hope that are in me, with gentleness and respect. Just as we are directed in 1 Peter 3:15-16 and Ephesians 6:20
OUR SOULS ARE WORTHY OF EVERY EFFORT!
God First!
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