The 1st Biblical Truth: God is #1

Have you ever heard “If you just do x, y & z, everything else will fall into place?” In my experience, that rarely works. Except when the x, y & z are the Father, Son & Holy Spirit and you make God #1 in your life.

When you prioritize God as #1 in your life, everything else does seem to just fall into place. In this article you’ll learn more about why shifting your mindset to make God #1 in your life is important to create healthy habits that stick and how you can make it happen.

This is the 1st of 3 Biblical Truths in The Freedom Through Faith Framework that help you shift your mindset and empower you to make the healthy choice the easy choice. Here they are in a nutshell:

God is #1 – The 1st & Greatest Commandment
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself – The 2nd Greatest Commandment
You Are a Temple of God’s Holy Spirit

Since the 1st and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind (Matthew 22:37), it makes sense that placing God #1 in your life is the 1st Biblical Truth to adopt.

The 1st and Greatest Commandment

God is #1 is the essence of the 1st Commandment God gave to Moses (Exodus 20:1-6, Deuteronomy 6:4-9) and Jesus confirms it in the New Testament (Matthew 22:37-38, Mark 12:28-30, Luke 10:27).

But if you’re like most people, including me, other things tend to creep in and take precedence over God in your life. So let’s take a closer look at this verse.

“You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
– Matthew 22:37

This isn’t a request, it would be nice if, I’d be ever so grateful if you’d…. It’s a command, an order from God.

You see, God designed you with a God-sized hole in your heart so you can make him #1, draw close to him. And when you do, you can experience all the blessings he showers you with.

Think of a time when you were truly happy, peaceful, yet ecstatic with joy-I bet you were filled with and/or expressing unbridled love. You were close to God.

Even when things aren’t going so well, when you lean on Jesus-let him take your burden, ask the Holy Spirit for inspiration or comfort, it’s so much easier to bear, isn’t it? Maybe it’s more peace in your heart, or he sends others to comfort or support you in various ways. But you feel better, don’t you?

God wants that for you all the time, no matter your circumstances, and you experience that when you’re close to him. Hence the command.

Making God #1 is a loving boundary our heavenly Father sets with your best interests at heart. Sounds a lot like a wise parenting, doesn’t it?

Choosing God by Infusing God in All You Do

Even though God commands you to do things, like place him #1 in your life, he still gives you the choice to make him your top priority or not. Life today is busy. No doubt, you have many worthy commitments like family or work, church or community activities that can weaken that love connection if God is crowded out of them.

How many times have you put these things before God? Did it trigger overwhelm, fear, doubt, even anger, resentment and shame among other things? Did it cause stress? Wreaking havoc with your life and your health?

So how can you fulfill your responsibilities and keep God #1 with only 24 hours in a day?

By infusing God in all you do!

Thank him for the food you eat, your family, work, your beautiful amazing body, the home you live in.

Ask him for guidance as you interact with others throughout your day, make food choices, clean your house. Talk to him as you drive, shop, move your body. It doesn’t have to be just focused, uninterrupted prayer time. He want’s to be intricately involved in your life. Smack dab in the middle of it. Mess & all.

Infuse God into your everyday life and watch your ordinary experiences become extraordinary!

By Infusing God & his love into everything you do, you strengthen your connection to him and do place God #1.

That doesn’t mean you forgo all the other forms of prayer if they work for you. But it does allow you to see things from a different perspective and approach challenges from a place of peace instead of fear or doubt.

Placing God #1 in the little things, in the little moments, allows you to stay in close to God even on the days (weeks, months, years…) you find yourself too busy to spend a good chunk of time in quiet prayer. It allows you to turn to God in the moment, where you need him the most.

Biological Effects of Placing God #1

As St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

As a nurse, I find it truly amazing how science confirms and explains how God actually designed our bodies. Physically, your body & mind function well in peace, in a state of ease. Not dis-ease. And when you align with His design, your body, mind & spirit work pretty well.

You’ll learn more about this in future posts, but in short, our busy, stressed-out lives causes our bodies to produce a stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol is great to wake you up in the morning & kick your body into action to get it out of danger in the short term.

But it comes at a price. It also interferes with digestion, metabolism, reproduction/menstrual cycles, thinking, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, sleep, etc. Processes that are OK when interrupted for a short time but not for long periods time.

But there is 1 hormone that takes shuts down cortisol in it’s tracks: oxytocin.

Oxytocin has many functions, one of them being the bonding hormone. It’s behind those warm fuzzy feelings of safety & peace you get when you give or receive a hug, or connect with someone on a deep level.

Your body also releases oxytocin when you turn to the Lord, the Prince of Peace, have a true connection with him. It’s this state of peace & ease (instead of dis-ease) that allows you to see things from a different perspective. Allows your body & mind to function optimally as you approach challenges from a place of peace instead of panic. This place of peace also opens your ears to inspirations, courage & other gifts from the Holy Spirit. So it behooves you to do your best to align with God’s design and place God #1 in your life.

Everything Else Falls Into Place

When you place God 1st in your life, everything else just seems to falls into place.

You know God is Love (1 John:4:16) and when you pair this truth with the well-known scripture passage from 1 Corinthians, this biblical truth makes more sense.

“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal’ and wraps up with So Faith, Hope and Love Remain but the greatest of these is love (emphasis, mine).
1 Corinthians 13:1-13

This passage declares that our everyday activities, done without love, without God are fruitless and unharmonious as a clashing cymbal. But done with love, with God, are life-giving, harmonious, peaceful. I don’t know about you, but I operate better in an environment of love, life, harmony & peace. So it behooves you to Keep God (love) #1 in your life.

When you place God #1 in your life, you’re able to think clearer and make better decisions. You tend to respond out of a place of peace instead of react when you’re triggered by fear, doubt, overwhelm, discouragement, anger, etc. In short, when you place God #1 and operate out of that place of peace or rest as St. Augustine refers to, it’s easier to choose healthier options.

Thoughts to ponder or journal about:

Take a few moments to journal about, jot down or sketch out all the things you place above God in your day-to-day life. They can be good, responsible things including family and work or things you’d like to change, like too much TV.

Next, write down ways you can infuse God into those things. Can you send silent blessings to people you live or work with? Notice God or the good in everything? Say,”Thank you Lord,” every time you do a bicep curl? Watch uplifting shows? Be creative!

Notice what happens when you do intentionally infuse God into these things.

Be sure to share your thoughts, insights, experiences in the comments below!

All so you can enjoy the journey!

Free 21 Day Advent Calendar: Journey to Jesus

Advent is just around the corner! Do you feel like you never have enough time during Advent to really slow down & tune in to God to prepare your heart for Christmas? Join us on Julie’s Free Journey to Jesus Advent Calendar with 21 days of short (5-7 minute) scripture-based guided meditations this Advent.

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Free 21 Day Advent Calendar: Journey to Jesus