Put God First

May 31st, 2012 by Dave Leave a reply »

Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . .for He knew what was in man —John 2:24-25

Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.

Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).

A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “. . . tarry . . . until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.

Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).

God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Come, Lord, Let my life be a Bethlehem for you to grow bigger and bigger in. Oswald says “slowly transformed.” I’m glad he said slowly. And I’m glad you have patience … more patience than me or most of my fellow humans have. Thanks for being God to us and not treating us as we “deserve” but rather with your Grace and Love which is non-understandably infinite.

If you have the same priorities that I did (I have come to do your will) and that Paul did:
Romans 12:2 (NLT)… Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

…Then you can relax and just do what I put in your heart. That’s how I did it … got the vision and marching orders from Dad, my father and your father.

John 5:19 NLT So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

This is obviously the best way to live. And it’s clear when I come away and lock out the world and just spend time with you … but it’s so easy to get off track when the cares and affairs of the world jump up and scream for attention. What to do?

There are many aspects of living a life in my footsteps. Build them into habits, and work on one at a time. Start at the beginning each day with quality time with me. We’ll go over and over these basics and I’ll show you the next steps.

Thank you, Lord.

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