So don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.     Matthew 6:31-33 HCSB

Many people, if you ask them, would claim to be a Christian. They would say that they believe in God. They would say that they love God. But the Bible tells us that we are to love God with all our heart, all our soul and all our minds (Matthew 22:37). If we look at who actually lives this out it may narrow the numbers a bit. The second command Jesus gave us is to love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). This may weed a few more out of the Christian pool.

Our Scripture passage tells us that we need not worry about having all that we need if we will simply focus on God and seek to be righteous. We all know that we are sinners and cannot be righteous on our own, but we can focus on Him and strive to be imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1).

Now the devil wants to keep us from doing that so he will put all kinds of things in our way, both good and bad. He may cause us to use the very things God has blessed us with to avoid spending time with God. It is easy to get so wrapped up in the good things of life that you forget to spend time with God in prayer, Bible study and church attendance. It’s easy to stay out too late with friends on Saturday night and not be able to make church on Sunday morning. Matthew 6:21 tells us that where our treasure is our heart will be also. If we consider God to be a treasure, our hearts will be with God. If we consider money and possessions to be our treasures, that’s just where our hearts will be.

Do you put God first? Is God more important to you than anyone or anything else? In Genesis 22 God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Now Abraham had waited for many years for Isaac to be born. God had promised Abraham that through Isaac, he would become the father of a great nation. Abraham did not hesitate, he did not question, he simply made preparations to sacrifice his son. But just at the last-minute God sent a ram to be the sacrifice. He provided a sacrifice to take Isaac’s place, just as He provided His own Son to take our place.

Jesus died for our sins, so I am asking you today how important is He to you? Is He more important than your family? Is He more important than your possessions? Is He more important than your desire to be accepted by others?

We need to be asking ourselves if we consider anything in our lives more important than God. We need to be asking if we are letting anything in our lives take time away from serving God.

God considers us to be so important that He sent His one and only Son to die a humiliating death on a cross to save us while we were yet sinners. In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus tells us that everyone who acknowledges Him before men, He will acknowledge them before His Father in heaven. But that everyone who denies Him before men, He will also deny them before His Father in heaven.

It took me many years to understand this, but God has to be the most important person in my life. He has to come first. When I put Him first, He takes care of me. I am not bright enough or strong enough to do all this on my own. I constantly need His help.

If there is any person or thing that you are putting before God, I urge you to stop it. I urge you to make Him a priority. Make prayer, and Bible study and church attendance among the most important things you do during the day and the week. Trust in Him and focus on Him and He will see that you have all you need.

I spent many years denying Him before my friends and co-workers. I spent many years thinking I had everything under control. Boy was I wrong.

I finally realized it was too much for me and gave it all over to Him. Now I just focus on Him and let Him handle the rest like our Scripture passage says. I pray that you will do the same.

Have a great day!