Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
We all want to be first. I mean, it’s human nature right? When you are in love with someone, you want to believe that you come first in their lives. Well, hopefully if you are a Christian then you are in love with another Christian and God comes first in their lives, right? But, that’s a whole other blog. When we enter contests, no one wants to finish last, we all want to be first, right?
When something is important to me, my competitive nature shows through. I strive to do my best. I want to finish in first place.
But in today’s scripture passage, Jesus is telling his disciples that because they gave up everything and put Him first, because they gave up their lives, their jobs, and their families to follow Him that they will be seated on thrones in heaven. But he goes on to say that whatever we give up on earth to follow him, we will be compensated 100 times over in heaven. Not only will we inherit eternal life, but we will be given way more than we have given up.
So, we need to wrap our minds around the fact that if we want to be first in heaven, we need to be last down here. While here on earth, we need to put God first. So, take a minute to think about what may prevent us from putting God first. Does your family get in the way of you putting God first? Do your hobbies get in the way of you putting God first? Does your television or your social media accounts get in the way of you putting God first? Does your job get in the way of you putting God first? Now we know from Matthew 6:33-34 that if we put God first that He will take care of everything else, but do we do it?
Another thing we all need to examine is do we have that “looking out for number one” mentality? Do you truly believe that if you don’t look out for yourself and protect yourself that no one else will? Well, for a long time I believed that. I had been hurt and betrayed in a relationship and from that point forward, I decided it was me against the world. I was going to protect myself from being hurt again. I lived that way for a long time. Sadly, I put my own wants and needs above the needs of others. I was consumed with getting what I wanted and not worried about what those around me may need. I was putting myself first, when I should have been putting myself last. I sinned and tried to justify it thinking that God would understand my need for self protection. I was a slow learner, but praise God, He finally got it through this thick head of mine that He was my protector and that He could do it way better than I could. Let me tell you something, my friend, nobody can watch your back any better than God. Now if you have been let down in life and you feel that God has forsaken you, I ask you to consider one thing. Who stepped away? You see, often times, we think that God has abandoned us, but if we look back to before we were hurt or let down, we will see that it was us who walked away from God.
Take a minute to take a good look at your life. Do you feel that you are putting God first in all areas of your life? If not, then why don’t you consider putting him first? Why don’t you consider loving God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind? When we do this, God takes the burden and the weariness off of us. We won’t live lives without trouble, but we will live under God’s hedge of protection. We will live knowing that God’s going to take care of us. If God is not first in your life, then I encourage you to move him to the front of everything you do. The peace and joy that comes from a life lived with Christ is worth more than anything this earth has to offer.
Have a great day!