Seek First

Seek First

Today's Scripture:

All night long I search for you; in the morning I earnestly seek for God…
Isaiah 26:9, NLT.

Today's Word:

Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Seek first the kingdom of God.” That word “seek” is a strong word. One definition is “to require as a vital necessity.” You have to see spending time with God as being vital to living a victorious life because some mornings we think, “I don’t want to get up early. I don’t feel like reading my Bible. I don’t feel like going to church today.” But once you get in a habit and see the benefits of how you feel refreshed and restored, you make better decisions, you’re more creative, you have God’s favor, and then you’ll think, “I can’t afford not to do it. When I don’t spend time with God, I don’t feel right. Something is missing.” “When I don’t go to church I don’t have the wisdom, the clarity, the direction. I don’t have the boost that I need for the week.”

Scripture says, “Seek first.” That indicates that we should take time for God at the start of the day. Don’t give Him your leftover time. Make Him a part of your normal routine. Make Him your first priority. Seek Him first, seek Him earnestly, and watch what He will do on your behalf.

Prayer for Today:

Father, today I choose to put You first. I acknowledge that without You, I can do nothing. I invite You to have Your way in my life as I seek You first in all that I do in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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Obedience Is the Secret to Joy

1 days ago

by Rick Warren

“Let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40 NLT)

Joy is an easy thing to lose, but it’s also an easy thing to get back. After you admit that you’ve lost your joy, you need to analyze the cause. You have to look at your life and ask yourself, “How did I lose my joy? What is robbing my joy?”
The Bible tells us many times in Scripture to examine our lives. Lamentations 3:40 says, “Let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord” (NLT).
There are hundreds of killjoys in life, but the two most common I see in people’s lives are an unbalanced schedule and unused talent. You have to have a balance between rest and work, input and output. And you have to use your unique, God-given talents, or you’re going to get frustrated. Take whatever percent of your talent that’s not being used in your job and use it for ministry. If you’re in a job that uses less than 25 percent of your talent, then get out.
Once you’ve figured out how you lost your joy, you need to correct what’s wrong.
Do you know what will rob your joy faster than anything else? When you know the right thing to do and you don’t do it.
The Bible says in James 4:17, “It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
So let me ask you: What do you know you need to be doing but you’re not? What has God told you to do but you haven’t started doing yet?
The secret to continual, abundant, and overflowing joy is obedience. It’s doing what God tells you to do. Every time you do what God tells you to do, your life’s going to be filled with joy.
You’re also going to be filled with joy when you think about what’s good in your life. David says in Psalm 126:3, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (NIV). The more you focus on what God has done for you, the more joy you’re going to have in your life. Why? Because it produces gratitude. And the attitude of gratitude is the healthiest human emotion.
If you want to get your joy back, first you admit it’s gone, then you analyze the cause. Then, correct what’s wrong, and get an attitude of gratitude. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the last three steps to recovering your joy.
Talk It Over

• What do you need to do to balance your schedule so that it does not steal your joy?
• What has God told you to do but you haven’t started doing yet?