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By Pastor J.D. Link

Abundant Grace Fellowship, Blanco, TX

Mattew 6:33- “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Notice it didn’t say to just seek God, but to seek God first. There is an important principle in the Word of God concerning seeking God first and foremost in our lives. We need to seek God the first part of the day. We need to seek God the first part of the week. We need to seek God first in a crisis situation. First in any decision. First concerning our finances or business. First in anything concerning our health or physical bodies. Basically, we need to make seeking God the first thing we do in everything. Let’s go to 2 Chronicles 14-16 for some examples.

In 2Ch 14, it tells us King Asa of Judah started off on the right foot, trusting and serving God. He calls on God to give him the victory over the million man Ethiopian army. In chapter 15, he gets blessed and encouraged by Azariah, and the whole nation enters into a covenant to seek God. In chapter 16, though, things go bad. Baasha, the king of Israel, comes against Asa. Unfortunately, instead of seeking God first to give him victory over Baasha (like he did concerning the Ethiopians), he takes money out of the House of God and bribes Benhadad, the pagan Syrian king, to help Him! Hanani the seer (prophet) pronounces judgment on Asa and tells him he has done a foolish thing (vs. 9b). What was the foolish thing? We read in vs. 7 ”…Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God…”.

Asa did not seek God first, and reaped a bad harvest. After what happened in chapter 14 & 15, He should have known to go to God first thing. Yet, how many times do we do the same thing? We have received blessing and victory in the past when we sought God first, but then we’ll forget and try to seek victory our way. I’m guilty myself. Asa again makes the same mistake concerning his physical healing. In 2Ch 16:12, it says that Asa became greatly diseased in his feet, but instead of seeking the Lord, he sought only physicians. Now I’m not against physicians. In fact Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, was a physician (Col. 4:14). When we are physically attacked with sickness, however, we should seek God first. We shouldn’t take a bunch of pills and run to the doctor over every little thing. Seeking God and speaking His Word should be the first thing we do, not the last. Again, I’m not saying you should never go to the doctor, but as a Christian, the Word says if there is any sick among us they should call for the elders of the church to come anoint them with oil and pray the prayer of faith over them, not the prayer of doubt and unbelief (James 5:14-15).

We as Believers have a mighty God, and we need to put faith in Him for everything. 2Ch 16:9 says “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him”. Asa got in trouble for not understanding this. God’s looking for someone to believe Him! Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” We must call on God! We must call on God first! You may think, “I just don’t know if I can trust God, I better do it my way.” Without faith it is impossible to please God! You must believe He’s real, and that He will reward you for seeking Him diligently (Heb. 11:6) [ We like the reward part, just not the “seeking diligently” part]. We all too often treat God like He’s our last option. “If all else fails, I guess we can pray”. Maybe everything else wouldn’t fail if we went to God in prayer first! I Tim 2:1 says “I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men”. Notice Paul said “first…….…prayer.” Until next time, rejoice in the Lord (Phip 4:4)!

Call On God First! Part 2

By Pastor J.D. Link

Abundant Grace Fellowship , Blanco, TX

Last week we started out looking at Mt. 6:33, seeing the important principle that we should not only seek God, but seek God first. We saw that we should seek God first at all times and in all things. We looked at King Asa as an example out of 2Ch 14-16, how he started off seeking God first, but then turned to his own wisdom instead of God’s. This was his downfall. This is also our downfall many times. We at times move out from under God’s umbrella, and start getting pounded with the wind and rain. Then we blame God for the results; but God hasn’t moved. If we would seek God first before making decisions, we would stay under His umbrella, and save ourselves a lot of trouble. We finished last week on 1Tim 2:1, stressing the point that Paul said “first of all….prayer”. The Apostle Paul was a man of action for sure, but he was a man of prayer first. Nehemiah was the same way. In Nehemiah 4:9, he said “we made our prayer unto our God (seeking God first), and set a watch against them day and night (being a man of action). Seek God first; then act.

King Jehoshaphat made the same mistake that his father King Asa made. In 2Ch 17, he started off seeking God first and being blessed because of it. It’s amazing how that works, isn’t it? Seek God first, follow His Word, obey Him; then you get blessed. Then in 2Ch 18, King Ahab of Israel asks Jehoshaphat to join him in fighting with Syria. Now, Jehoshaphat shouldn’t have been hanging out with the evil Ahab anyway, but he did make a wise decision as far as going to war was concerned. In verse 4 He suggests that they “enquire at the Word of the Lord” before they do anything. The true prophet, Micaiah, says they’re going to get whipped, but they go into battle anyway. Ahab gets killed, and when Jehoshaphat gets back home, the son of the prophet that pronounced judgment on Asa pronounces judgment on Jehoshaphat (2Ch 19:2). Jehoshaphat should have sought God before he ever had anything to do with Ahab. A little side lesson from this story: Don’t hang out with people who don’t love the Lord. What does light have to do with darkness? (2Cor 6:14-18)

We should also seek God first in finances and business. In Proverbs 3:9-10, it says we should honor The Lord with the first fruits of our increase, then our barns shall be filled with plenty. Notice it’s not the last fruits. It’s not spend your money however you want and if there’s any left over, give God a tip in the bucket. No, we’re to honor Him first. It’s all His money anyway (Ps 24:1), although we tend to think it’s ours.

Another way of seeking God first is making your time with Him a priority the first part of the day. Start your day saying “Good morning, Lord!”, instead of “Good Lord it’s morning”.

King David wrote in Psalm 5:3 “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” In Proverbs 8:17 God says “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” Start your day with God. It will start to bear much fruit in your life. I know for me personally, it really makes a huge difference to wake early and spend time with God in prayer and Bible reading. You won’t regret it. Also see Psalms 63:1, 88:13, 130:6, 143:8.

I don’t believe it is any accident that we as Christians start off our week assembling together to worship God. There is no better way to start the week off right than to come to church. The Word of God commands us to not forsake it (Heb. 10:24-25). I believe God thinks it’s important. In Acts 20:7, the disciples came together to break bread and hear the Word preached on the first day of the week (Sunday). 1Cor 16:2 says the disciples should set aside their offerings on the first day of the week. Sometimes we feel like Monday is the first day of the week, and Sunday the last, but God ordained Sunday as the first day. I encourage you to start your week off right by starting it off with God. Put God first in everything! Until next time, rejoice in the Lord (Phip 4:4)!