To live life to its fullest and to accomplish and experience all that God has created you to do, God and His kingdom must be first. God is not to be one among many; He is to be first. The problem in most of our lives today is that God is merely in the vicinity; He is not first. I often hear people tell me that they just don’t have enough time for God, which means that they are really telling me that God is not first place in their lives. This is because a person will always make time for what is first, for what matters most.

Over and over in Scripture, we read about God and the offering where He asks for the “first fruits” of all that He has given to us. As just one example of many, we read in Proverbs, “Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce” (Proverbs 3:9). When Jesus reproved the church at Ephesus, as recorded in the book of Revelation, He chided them for having left their “first love” (Revelation 2:4). Jesus wasn’t saying that they didn’t love Him at all. In fact, He applauded them for being upstanding people who “have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary” (v. 3). But what He was saying is that they had left their “first love.” They no longer regarded Him as first in their hearts or in their lives.

In Colossians, this point of Christ’s preeminence over all things is further emphasized where we read, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:18, emphasis added). God makes it clear here and repeatedly throughout Scripture that nothing less than first is where He belongs in our lives.

God’s kingdom is to be lived from the perspective of heaven, not earth. That’s why Jesus said, “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The pagans may run after the physical, visible things in life (see v. 32), but we are called to prioritize God’s kingdom. We are called to put God first.

What far too many Christians do is mix a little of God with a lot of the world. As a result, they wind up not experiencing any of God because His kingdom is not of this world. When you bring the world into the Word, you are asking the King to bless something that His kingdom is not a part of, and He won’t do it.

See, if you lose sight of the kingdom—if you lose sight of putting God first, God’s perspective gets lost and you start focusing on the physical and temporal things in life. When that happens, your judgment begins to be skewed and your decisions become short-sighted. Rather than fulfilling your destiny and living out your purpose, you end up with wasted time, effort, energy, and emotions.

Yet when God’s kingdom is prioritized—when God is given your first energy, thoughts, time, and emotions, you get to see heaven both rule and overrule in your life. You get to witness God overrule circumstances and people that you thought had the last word. You get to experience God at a whole other level when you experience Him as King.

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Testimony Time

“Thank you for the book, One Nation Under God. The men at our church and I really enjoyed Kingdom Man as well. I can't wait to do the program again. Thank you, Pastor.”   

“Thank you, Tony, for helping me to forgive. I thought I had forgiven until you said, 'You haven't forgiven if you are still seeking revenge...' You gave me an important tool. When you said, 'Forgiveness does not necessarily equal reconciliation,' that took away any fear I had of forgiving. Today I'm confident and free to move on in peace. Thank you!!!!!!”   

“Good morning, Dr. Tony Evans. I really enjoy your teaching. I hear you on Faith Radio and Trinity Broadcasting. Keep up the good work.”