God, our First Priority!

‘You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,

“In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”

And,

“But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.’ – Hebrews 10:36-39 NIV

Hebrews 10:36-39 relates to everybody—not just for those who face various kinds of trials or persecutions, etc.. Most of us put God as our second or last priority in life. We tend to get all things sorted out, and then serve Him. This is because we believe that God always understands everything of what we are going through (Isaiah 40:28) and we think it is okay to serve Him last out of our priorities. The main reason for these is because of the steadfast love of God. Yes, God has His steadfast love over us and He completely understands of everything that we are going through at the moment, due to the fact that He knows everything (Romans 11:33-36), but God is more pleased when we serve Him and glorify His name first. This is because the main reason that we are in this world is to worship God and glorify His name out of all things in our lives (Colossians 1:16-20). Thus, when we think about putting our God as second or last priority in our lives, it is possible that we face every kind of trials when temptations come. However, when they come to us, we must win over them as temptations are of devil and God always provides the way to escape them (1 Corinthians 10:13). This is only possible when we obey the first commandment of God, which is loving Him with all of our souls, hearts, minds, and strength (Mark 12:30).

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:2-8)

Therefore, we have to overcome the world (1 John 5:1-5), for “we know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19) The main reason for this is that the desires of our worldly nature are contrary to the desires of the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:17). This is true because if we serve the world with money, then we do not have any time to serve God unless we are intending to serve Him through money, such as creating orphanages, providing financially for missions of the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:19-24), etc.. Thus, for this reason, we have to have to focus on the will of God, and put Him as our first priority, if we are going to serve God and follow Jesus Christ until the end of the age (Colossians 3:1-4), as Jesus is the perfect image of God (Colossians 1:15).

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. (Luke 14:28-33)