How do you  prioritize God?

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How do you prioritize God? A couple months ago, my wife reorganized our bedroom. We had this little chair thing that opens up and you can put towels in it. She had moved it to the end of our bed for easy access. Well, in the middle of the night, I got up to use the restroom and I ended up slamming my shin into that chair. The noise was so loud, I woke up my wife. I fell on the floor and all I could think about was the pain. Isn't it interesting how our body prioritizes pain? It's like it's saying, "I don't care what you're doing. This is the most important thing right now." How do we get to the place of prioritizing God like our body prioritizes pain? Well, what's interesting is the word priority does not appear in the Bible at all. So, is prioritizing God that important? Well, when Jesus is talking to the people about their necessities, not having enough to wear, eat, drink, he does say, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." That word first in the Greek is called protos, which means before anything else. Sounds like a priority order, right? Jesus is saying, "Seek God and the ways of God before anything else and he'll take care of you." But how do we practically do that? Well, here are the four ways that work for me that I got from the Bible. First, prioritizing God weekly. There are two places in scripture where we see people coming together on the first day of the week. So, for me, I also choose to prioritize God by going to church on the first day of the week to say, "God, before work and anything else this week, I'm putting you first." Second, the Bible says, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, went off to a solitary place where he prayed." The second thing I do is go into a quiet place in my house where I listen or read the Bible and pray saying, "God, I also need you before I take on this day." Because he's not just with us when we're at church. And if we treat it like it's the only place that can charge us up, then at the end of the week our battery could be dead. Remember Jesus' prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." God has something he wants to share with us daily. But not just daily, because the third thing comes from this Bible verse. "Rejoice always. Pray continually." God wants us to be with him every moment, to bring him into every situation. And I used to think it's just not possible, but then God reminded me that he said he would send the Holy Spirit to us once we accepted the salvation of Jesus to guide us and remind us of his teachings. Because if we were to try to do all that on our own, not happening. Prioritizing God means we are doing it with God. Now, the fourth way has been one of the hardest, but certainly the most helpful. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Throughout the Bible, there is this principle of first fruits, where we see God asking us to give him the first and best of what we have. First part of our week, first part of our day, first 10% of our money, all to lead us to this place of remembering that God's ways are the best ways. And without integrating him into our daily life, moment by moment, submitting our finances, I'm more likely to prioritize whatever I want over what God wants. And what he wants is what's best for me. And because he can see everything, I got to trust his perspective over my own. That's what works for me. So, tell me, how do you prioritize God? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless.