Putting God first is easy to say until God asks you to put Him before the thing you desperately want. It is easy to say, “God comes first,” when everything is going according to your plans, when your prayers seem to be answered, when your relationships are going well, when opportunities are coming and when life looks the way you imagined it would. But what happens when obedience to God means waiting? What happens when it means letting go? What happens when what you want and what God is asking of you are two completely different things?
What does it mean to put God first in your life?
Putting God first means allowing Him to influence every area of your life. It is not just about your church life. It is about your relationships, your friendships, your money, your career, your ambitions, your decisions, your habits and your future.
It means that God is not only involved in the parts of your life that are easy to surrender to Him. He is also involved in the parts you desperately want to control. It means you don’t simply ask, “What do I want?” You also begin to ask, “What does God want for me?”
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” To me, this means that seeking God cannot be something we do only after everything else has been figured out. He becomes the starting point. Before the relationship, God. Before the career, God. Before the money, God. Before the opportunity, God. Before the decision, God. Not because these things are bad, but because none of them were created to take the place of God in your life.
Putting God first doesn’t mean that you cannot desire good things. You can desire success without worshipping success. You can desire marriage without making marriage your identity. You can desire money without allowing money to become your security. You can desire love without making another human being responsible for giving you the identity only God can give you.
The problem begins when the thing you want becomes the thing you are unwilling to surrender. Sometimes you don’t realize that something has become too important to you until God asks you to place it back in His hands.
Putting God first means walking away from something that looks good because you know it isn’t good for you. Sometimes it means refusing to compromise your values because everyone else is doing it. Sometimes it means choosing forgiveness when anger feels easier. Sometimes it means waiting when you desperately want an answer.
Sometimes it is also accepting that something you wanted may not be something God wants for you. And sometimes it means trusting God’s timing when you are tired of waiting. This is where emotions can become difficult. Putting God first does not mean becoming emotionless. It doesn’t mean that you stop feeling disappointed, hurt, confused, angry or afraid. You are human, and there will be moments when something doesn’t happen the way you wanted it to and you will feel it deeply.
There will be moments when you want to lie on your bed and cry because you don’t understand why this particular thing didn’t work out. And honestly, you are allowed to cry. You are allowed to be disappointed. You are allowed to admit that something hurt you. But putting God first means that you don’t allow your emotions to become the thing that makes all your decisions for you.
Sometimes instead of spending the entire day lying on your bed, crying over why something didn’t happen the way you wanted, you have to stop and ask, “God, what are You trying to show me through this?” That doesn’t mean you suddenly stop hurting. It means you invite God into the hurt.
Philippians 4:6-7 tells us not to be consumed by anxiety, but to bring our requests, concerns and thanksgiving before God in prayer, and that the peace of God can guard our hearts and minds. I love this because God is not asking us to pretend that we don’t have problems. He is asking us to bring them to Him. You can tell God, “This hurts.” You can tell Him, “I don’t understand.” You can tell Him, “I really wanted this.” You can tell Him, “I’m afraid.” You can tell Him, “I don’t know what to do.” And you can still trust Him.
That is what surrender can look like. We think putting God first means that we must always be strong, always be confident and always know what God is doing. But there are moments when putting God first simply means saying, “Lord, I don’t understand what is happening, but I don’t want my confusion to make me run away from You.” You don’t have to understand everything before you trust God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not to lean entirely on our own understanding, but to acknowledge Him in all our ways so that He can direct our paths. That means there will be times when your understanding is not enough. There will be situations where you cannot see what God sees. There will be doors you want open that remain closed. There will be opportunities you thought were perfect that don’t work out. There will be relationships you thought would last that don’t. There will be seasons where you pray and still have to wait.
Putting God first means learning to trust Him even there
Imagine that you desperately want a particular relationship to work, you love the person, you have imagined a future together, you have pictured what your life could look like with them. But slowly, you notice that the relationship is pulling you away from God. You find yourself compromising your convictions, you stop praying, you become emotionally dependent on the person, you know something isn’t right, but you are terrified of losing them.
Putting God first may mean being honest enough to say, “Lord, I love this person, but I don’t want anything I love to become more important to me than You.” That is not an easy prayer because sometimes putting God first costs something. Jesus said in Luke 9:23 that anyone who wants to follow Him must deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Him. Notice that He said daily.
Putting God first is not one big decision you make once and never have to make again. It happens in the small decisions you make every day. It is choosing obedience when nobody is watching. It is choosing to forgive when you would rather hold onto anger.
It is choosing patience when you desperately want an answer. It is choosing to pray before reacting. It is choosing to walk away from what you know is wrong even when you could easily justify staying. Choosing to surrender your plans when God redirects you. It is waking up and remembering God before the noise of the world begins telling you what your day should look like. It is learning to say, “Lord, lead me.”
Putting God first means admitting that you don’t know what to do. James 1:5 says that if anyone lacks wisdom, they should ask God, who gives generously without finding fault. So before making major decisions, pause. Pray. Seek wisdom. Read Scripture. Ask God what He wants.
But there is something else that I think is important. Don’t only ask God to bless what you have already decided. Ask Him to change your decision if it isn’t right, that requires a different level of surrender because sometimes we pray, “God, please make this work,” when what God may actually be asking us to pray is, “God, if this isn’t Your will for me, give me the strength to let it go.” That is a much harder prayer, but it is also a much deeper form of trust.
Putting God first means allowing Him to be God even when His answer is not the answer you wanted. It means trusting that His “no” does not mean He doesn’t love you. His “wait” does not mean He has forgotten you. His redirection does not automatically mean that you have failed. Sometimes God sees what you cannot see.
Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. So there will be moments when you simply won’t understand, and that is where faith becomes real. You don’t always need to understand God’s plan before you obey Him. Sometimes you obey first and understand later. Sometimes you have to keep walking even when you cannot see the entire road.
Putting God first also means allowing Him into the ordinary parts of your life. Talk to Him about your plans. Ask Him for wisdom before making decisions. Tell Him when you are excited. Tell Him when you are disappointed. Tell Him when you are confused. Let Him correct you. Let Him redirect you. Let Him teach you. Let Him become part of your everyday life instead of someone you only remember when you need something. Because, the more you walk with God, the more you begin to realize that putting Him first is not about giving Him a small portion of your life. It is about allowing Him to become the foundation of your life.
So today, look at your life and honestly ask yourself, “What currently has the strongest influence over my decisions?” Is it God? Your emotions? People? Money? Fear? Your desires? Your need to be accepted? Your fear of losing someone? Whatever is sitting on the throne of your heart will eventually influence the direction of your life.
Putting God first is not about appearing spiritual. It is about surrender, it is about allowing God into the places where you would normally say, “I can handle this myself.” It means trusting Him with your relationships, your career, your money, your dreams, your future, your disappointments and your unanswered prayers. It also mean trusting Him with the things you are terrified to lose.
Putting God first will require you to wait, it will require you to let go and to start again. It will also require you to get off that bed after crying over what didn’t happen and ask, “Lord, what do You want me to learn from this?” And sometimes the answer may not come immediately but, you keep walking, You keep praying, You keep trusting, You keep obeying because, putting God first means that even when you don’t know what tomorrow holds, you know who holds tomorrow.
So perhaps the real question isn’t simply, “Do I say that God comes first?” The deeper question is, “If God truly came first in my life, what would I have to change, surrender, stop, start or let go of?” When you find the answer, don’t just think about it, live the answer.
