What if the peace you have been looking for begins with one simple decision: putting God first?
From beginning to end, Scripture tenderly calls us back to one life-giving truth: God is meant to have first place in our hearts. He is not asking for our leftovers, our spare moments, or a distant form of devotion. He wants us near. He invites us to bring Him our love, our fears, our hopes, our questions, and our whole lives. And when we truly place Him first, we discover that even in a restless world, there is a peace that steadies the soul and a love that holds us together.
The Primary Commandment
In the Old Testament, God made it clear that nothing should come before Him. Jesus echoed that same truth when He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37-38). This is more than a command to remember; it is a deeply personal invitation to love the One who first loved us. God does not want empty routine or distant worship. He desires the sincere affection of our hearts—the part of us that longs, grieves, hopes, and trusts. To love Him with all that we are means giving Him the place no one else can fill. And when He is first, the scattered pieces of our lives begin to find rest beneath His care.
Jesus also joined love for God with love for our neighbor. That reminds us that real devotion cannot stay hidden in the heart—it begins to show in the way we speak, forgive, serve, and care. When God’s love truly takes root in us, it softens what has grown hard, humbles what has grown proud, and teaches us to see others with mercy. The closer we draw to Him, the more His compassion begins to flow through our ordinary lives.
The Promise of Provision
Jesus knows how easily our hearts grow heavy with the needs of daily life. He sees the burdens we carry in silence—the worries about provision, security, the future, and whether we will have enough. That is why His words in Matthew 6:33 are so tender and so freeing: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” He lovingly calls us away from anxious striving and back into the safety of trusting dependence. When God’s kingdom becomes our first pursuit, we can breathe again, knowing our Father sees us, knows us, and will faithfully care for us.
Putting God first means loosening our grip on the things we were never meant to carry alone. It means bringing our fears, our needs, and our unanswered questions into His hands instead of letting them quietly crush us. We still work, plan, and remain faithful in what is before us, but we no longer have to live as if everything depends on us. The One who gave us life is fully able to sustain us. As we seek Him above all else, fear begins to lose its voice, and our hearts learn the healing strength of trust.
Daily Surrender and Trust
Putting God first is not only seen in great spiritual turning points, but also in the quiet faithfulness of ordinary days. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” These words meet us in our uncertainty. They invite us to lay down our need to have every answer and to rest in the wisdom of the One who sees the end from the beginning. They call us to bring every part of life before Him—our plans, our pain, our joy, our confusion, and our longing—and trust that His way, even when hard to understand, is always good.
Daily surrender often looks small from the outside, but in the eyes of God it is precious and holy: a whispered prayer before a hard decision, obedience when the cost feels high, gratitude in seasons of joy, and trust in seasons of pain. It is choosing, again and again, to believe that His wisdom is greater than ours and His heart is gentler than our fears. As we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He does not abandon us to figure life out alone. He gently leads us, steadies our trembling steps, and gives peace for the journey ahead.
All throughout Scripture, the message remains beautifully clear: God belongs first. He is worthy of our worship, our trust, our affection, and our surrender. When we love Him above all else, seek His kingdom before our own desires, and place our lives in His hands, we begin to discover the deep comfort of belonging fully to Him. To put God first is not a burden—it is the doorway to a life held by grace, guided by truth, and sustained by a hope that does not fail.
Prayer: Lord, teach my heart to seek You first above every fear, desire, and distraction. Help me to trust You more deeply, love You more fully, and follow You more faithfully each day. Amen.
Minister A Francine Green I May 2026