“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

We recently had a speaker at our church who gave a message about walking with Jesus. Prior to hearing this speaker, I had told people over and over that Jesus was Lord of my life.

He is the King of Kings and He will reign forever, but a King can only reign in His own territory and I determined that there were areas of my life, that were not within His territory and I didn’t even know it!

I sincerely thought that I was faithfully following Jesus, but most of the time I ran ahead of Him and left Him lagging behind.

I think we could all say that about times and areas of our lives, I don’t think that I am alone. But there is terrible danger in forgetting that God is God and He is our life.

In the book of Acts, chapter 12, we see that Paul and Barnabas pick John Mark to accompany them on a trip to Antioch (Acts 12:25).

Paul, Barnabas and John Mark are then sent to Cyrus (Acts 13:1–5). But something happens on their way there and John Mark decides he is going no further. Once they sail to Perga, John Mark leaves them and heads back to Jerusalem (v. 13). We have no idea why he left, but he abandons the mission. Paul is so upset by his abrupt departure that when Barnabas suggests later that they go get John Mark, they get into a disagreement that results in them separating and going in different directions. They had been through so much together, traveling together on multiple mission trips and yet this disagreement over John Mark causes them to separate.

Initially we think that John Mark is a disciple, being discipled by two incredible men of the Bible. But very quickly we see that perhaps our opinion of him is wrong. We see that he loses sight of the most important thing in his life….God. God is no longer in first place in John Mark’s life.

The happy ending to John Mark’s mistakes are that, somewhere along the way, he must have figured it out and put God back in first place because we see him not only with Paul in prison, but Paul says that he is a great comfort to him (¹⁰ Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), ¹¹ and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. Colossians 4:10-11).

God deserves first place in our lives our lives belong to Him, He created us, He rescued us and He blesses us…when we put Him in first place (20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.).

How many days have we started that we neglected to even acknowledge God? How many days have we ended that, at no point, acknowledged God? How many decisions have we made about our lives, our families, our children, our service to God without even consulting Him? How many times have we gotten stuck in the mud or the snow, been late for work because of an accident, been short with our children because of the stresses of taking on too much and then gotten angry at God? When those things happen and we do get frustrated with God for “allowing” it, I would challenge you to ask yourself if you ever asked God what you should have done in the first place? Did you ask Him if you should travel down that muddy or snowy road? Did you ask Him if you should have taken a different route that morning or left earlier and perhaps He would have directed you to avoid the accident and you may have been on time? Did you ask God if you should take on all the things that are stressing you out and causing you to lash out at your children and family, are they even things that would have an eternal impact? See, we like to blame God, but we don’t like to consult Him.

Don’t just say He is Lord, make Him Lord of your life, King of all your territories.

He deserves to be the first place we go in the morning, the first place we go for a decision, the first place we go at night before we slumber, not just the first place we go to get help.

I pray that today we would do some self-examination and that we would ask ourselves whether we are fitting God into our day or fitting our day into God’s plan. I pray that going forward we would consult him on everything, and instead of just saying He’s Lord of our lives, let’s increase His territory and make Him ruler over every area in our lives and our hearts. Let’s put Him first.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and you’ve been struggling through this life, getting frustrated with God when things don’t go your way but never trusting him to lead you in the first place, I pray that you would go to our Life Preserver page (https://forgiven-n-loved.com/life-preserver/) and pray the prayer that is outlined there. God loves you. He established a plan that would allow for you to spend eternity with him, that’s how much he loves you. He wants to help direct your path so that you don’t suffer the things that you’ve been going through (Proverbs 3:5 & 6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”).

Please pray that prayer and when you do please reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know so that I can be in prayer for you.

Luv Ya!