Put God First

These past few weeks for me have been filled with great touches of God’s grace. Without a doubt God has been present in our services on Sundays as well. In the past two weeks we have seen 18 people come to know Jesus for the first time and some very high attendance numbers as well. We have experienced some incredible moments of His love and grace in our gatherings and have experienced some very moving moments of worship – deep within our hearts. I believe these touches of blessing are a direct result of us falling more and more in love with God.

In today’s bible reading we are face to face with the commands of God.

SCRIPTURE:
Deuteronomy 5:6 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me. (NIV)
Deuteronomy 6:4 & 5
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (NIV)

Put God First and Love Him with all that you are and all that you have.

OBSERVATION:

It isn't difficult to love God. After all, He does so very much for each of us all of the time. But as we notice we are to put God first and foremost above all things, well, that can get a bit tricky. We are to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. In other words, we are to give God all of our love and all of ourselves. We should put God first in our hearts and our dreams. He is to be in and on our minds and thoughts. That might sound like a lot, but it isn't something we cannot obtain. It is not a command that is impossible. The more time we spend reading the Bible, praying, thinking about God, and being with other people who also love God, the easier and more natural it becomes to love God the way he calls us to: Take what He says and place it into our hearts. His words, love and power are too essential to not have them as a part of our lives.These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Deuteronomy, is not just good advice it is our assignment: “Keep these words today in your heart; recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. (God doesn’t leave too many options here) He wants us to have His word and heart on our hearts.
We live in an age when love is talked about so freely and applied to all things. We love cars, dogs and fish and food and buildings and money, and on and on. But when God used this word it was to remind us that love is more than feeling and affection – it is commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude and worship may fill us as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Deuteronomy demands of us is a life of commitment and service to Him. I believe God is blessing LFC because we are doing our best to love Him with all that we have and all that we are. We are thinking about Him more and more.
When a rich young man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:16-24, Mark 10:17-25), Jesus probably knew the man was obsessed with wealth. He told the man to sell his many possessions and give the money to the poor. Sadly, the man could not bring himself to give up his great wealth, even for the promise of eternal life from Jesus, Himself!

APPLICATION:
The call and command of God to us to love Him really provides benefit for us that can be received no other way. An obsession with wealth is not the only thing that can come between God and us. Any desire that becomes too important in our lives can cause us to lose sight of God's love and remove Him from being first. May we all grow in our love towards God each and every day and not allow anything to come before Him.

PRAYER:
Lord, may my heart be after you and grow in love with you. May I see my love as more than a feeling or a flash but a life-long commitment to you and your ways. May I give you all of my love and all of myself. In Jesus’ Name, Amen