Heard a sermon yesterday that really called me out on a few things. Pulled the covers away without warning. More like a snatch or yank, if you will. There I was at my kitchen table encountering Christ through my typical online church experience. It’s 2021, and it’s still Covid streets before us, so my table is the best seat in God’s House.
And just like that, He convicted me. I didn’t feel ashamed or shunned. I wasn’t left-out to dry or turned away from the salvation I could never afford. Not even did I feel like God moved away from me. I actually felt like He was very close and very concerned about me as His child.
I was just exposed. In the game after having yet practiced. Just me and my shortcomings matched up against such a corrective yet forgiving Father. So gentle and kind, yet mighty and omnipresent. Right in my kitchen, I experienced a hard reset. I had been out of rhythm for a few weeks now. Praying, but not fervently. Reading but not feasting on the Word. Around people, but not plugged in appropriately. Not putting God and my relationship with Him first, and I was forced to sit, facing myself in the moment of correction.
And all I could hang onto was that “First Ain’t Second” like Pastor Mike Todd shared in His message yesterday.
God calls us to seek Him first. Provide Him with the first fruits of all that we have. Our time. Our talents. Our treasures. To be children after His own heart. To posture ourselves like Him. And He calls us to do these things first. Before anything else. Anyone else. He calls us to revere Him first! And yesterday, as I sat exposed, God continued to remind me that "First Ain’t Second," and I am held to a standard because I know and acknowledge that truth.
And that’s regardless of how you slice that pie. What does it cost me to freely return 10% of everything that God provides me with and live off of a blessed 90% of abundance? Blessed from my sacrifice of the measly 10% that isn’t mine to begin with.
So with all of this, remember that FIRST will never, ever be second. And that’s on Mary and The Little Sacrificial Lamb.
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