“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and

all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 (NKJV))

By examining yourself, you should be able to determine if God is the One who’s on center stage in your life. To do so, ask yourself what you spend most of your time thinking about. Is it your children? Your husband? Or getting a husband? Maybe it’s not family-related but your job, a vacation you’re planning, or a fun night out with friends.

Now compare the amount of time you spend thinking about those things with how much you think about God. Meditating on His goodness – on who He is and all He has done. Thinking about things like how He created the universe by speaking it into existence and how that shows His power and might. About the promises He’s made to us and all He’s done for you.

If God’s not front and center in your thought-life, you may have relegated Him to that dusty supply closet backstage where you only go when you need something.

God wants to be the main thing in your life, for you to seek Him first. He doesn’t want to be an after-thought, the One we only think about when something bad happens. We shouldn’t confine God to our Sunday mornings. Of course, God also wants us to seek Him in those times. But He doesn’t want them to be the only occasions in which we come to Him.

Make sure you haven’t confined God to certain parts of your life. Instead, put Him on center stage. Give Him priority. Seek Him first, not when you get around to it. When you do, God has promised to provide for your needs.

Besides His promise of provision, there are other reasons we should seek God first. For one, God deserves to be on center stage in our lives. He is the One who created the universe – the One who made us (Genesis 1:1, 27). And Jesus is the One who sustains us. He is literally holding us together. The Bible teaches us that “He holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:17 (NLT)).

Moreover, God wants to have a relationship with you. But you can’t have a relationship with someone you’re not spending time with.

Think about the connections you have with your family and friends. They take time, thought, and energy. Without that investment, a relationship can become estranged. Or it may never form to begin with.

It takes time to develop a friendship – to get to know a person’s likes and dislikes, to understand what they think is important, and to learn how they feel about certain things. If you don’t make the time, you won’t get to know that person very well.

It’s the same with God. If you don’t spend time with Him, your relationship with Him won’t deepen. It won’t grow. You won’t know Him very well. And God wants you to know Him. He has revealed Himself to you in the Bible.

Isn’t that amazing? The all-powerful, all-mighty God wants to have a close relationship with you! He already knows everything about you. God knows what you do and what you think about. He even knows what you’re going to say before you even say it (Psalm 139:4). But He wants you to get to know Him.

So let God be on center stage in your life. Seek Him first today. That doesn’t mean you stop caring about other people or things. Seeking God first just means that God takes priority each day of your life.

Here are a few things that will help you to seek God first:

• Read the Bible every day to discover who God is and His will for your life.
• Meditate on what you read. Ask yourself what it means and how God wants you to apply it to your life.
• Pray to God. Tell Him what’s going on in Your life. Ask Him for guidance and help with the decisions you need to make.
• Be obedient to do whatever God asks you to do. If the Bible teaches you that you shouldn’t do something, obey God and stop doing it. Conversely, if there’s something God wants you to do, start doing it.

As you seek God first – putting Him on center stage, you’ll be able to walk by faith with Him.

* Photo by Barry Weatherall on Unsplash