It amazes me how the Holy Spirit brings things back into our remembrance. I was going through my notes on my phone and looking through them and then found a note. I have no idea where I heard it and in what context, but it spoke to me. It says: „But first… these two words will get you away from the call of God.“
It was the perfect time for me to see it because I started to form some new „but firsts“. It started with, but first, let me finish my Master’s, and then I will be all in. Then after finishing, it became but first let me find a house and a job. Then He brought this note back up, and I realised if I continued with this, I will not fulfil God’s plan for my life because I will be occupied with the things I wanted to do first.
However, this does not mean that I wasn’t serving Him, that I wasn’t giving my all in church and the things I was involved in, but I know there is more. In order for me to tap into more, I need to surrender my firsts and put Him and His kingdom first wholeheartedly.
Matthew 6:33, an often-quoted Bible verse, says:
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
We know it, but sometimes we don’t live it. We might think, but first, let me earn more money, travel, serve in a different capacity, give in a different capacity, and so much more.
However, the word says to seek first, like first and foremost. First, before anything that we want and deem important, is the kingdom of God. We are so privileged to serve a good God, a God that loves and knows us and that says that as we put Him, His kingdom and His righteousness first, all the other things will be added unto you. That refers to the other things mentioned before this verse, not all the things that we may feel entitled to have.
In Matthew 8:21-22 it says:
Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
To put this into context, Jesus was healing many before this; the leper was cleansed, the centurion’s servant was healed, and more. So then Jesus gave the command to the multitudes to go to the other side, and after we join into the passage in Matthew 8:21-22.
What is interesting about it is that the disciple must have been with Him, seeing the healing miracles take place and only when Jesus gave the command to go to the other side, then there was a „but first“. Let me first do something that I want to do, and then I am ready to fully commit to what you have. This is not how it works, though.
The kingdom of God comes first. We serve a good God that loves us more than anyone could. He cares about us. I think sometimes we might think when we don’t do our things first, we won’t be able to do it while doing what God requires, but this is not true. God cares, and this is also visible a couple of verses prior in Matthew 8:14-15 where Peter’s mother-in-law was sick, and He touched her, and the fever left her. He cares… a lot.
Therefore it is not about us caring for our family but the excuses we make in order to serve God fully. The story of the other disciple that wanted first to bury his dad never mentioned that his dad was already dead. If he would have been, he would have probably already been with him and his family. This is more about the things that we put before in order to follow Jesus. Let me first do this one thing, which might take years to come, and then I can follow you.
No, this is not the way. The time is now, and actually, I think it also has to do with pride. How dare we think that we even have the time first to do something else, thinking that we are still here after? In Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 it says:
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be bron, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted.
There is a time for everything, but we are not the authors of time. So for us to think there is a different time to do the thing God called us for is pride.
So, whatever God called you to do. Don’t delay; just do it. And know that He cares much more about you than you even do.
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