Make God First to Infuse Your Day with Hope

When you make God first, you make way for hope to grow. The first thing you do each day sets a focus for the rest of your day. With God in the lead, nothing can stand against you.

Watch today’s #GrowingHOPE

My day wasn’t going right. Every time I started, something interrupted. First, the computer had to update. Next, my son spilled the milk – like the whole gallon of milk that we had just opened. Then the water quit.

I soon followed.

Alone, none of the things would have bothered me that much. My computer often has a mind of its own, so I don’t take it personally when it goes off on a whim like that. Not normally, anyway. It’s not the first time milk has been spilled. There’s no crying over spilled milk. And our waterline runs from the main road, through the field, and to the house. The line has broken so many times my plumber taught me how to repair it so he would have to drive all the way out when it happened again.

On this day, though, they all bombarded me and left me done for the day.

“What’s wrong with this day?” I may have screamed my question to the sky. It may have stayed in my head. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.

I took a walk and tried to let the sunshine in – literally and figuratively. Halfway through my walk, I remembered I hadn’t read my Scripture that morning.

The day had started out behind, which was another reason I was susceptible to the trials. I told myself I would get to my reading after I got breakfast cooked, then after I got school started, and then I forgot.

I made a point to push everything else aside and read the Word when I returned to the house.

After that, the water suddenly worked. The computer was running better than ever. And a cow showed up to provide more milk so I wouldn’t have to go to the store.

Okay, none of that happened, but I did feel better. I let in a little Light, and with that little Light, I could see that things weren’t all that bad. It only felt that way because I had been facing it alone. Once I put the Word back at the forefront, I remembered that I am never alone.

When I start my day in the Word, I start my day with God first. The focus shifts me from seeing the problems to looking for the hope and possibilities.

Build a Habit to Make God First

• Find a Scripture breakdown that works for you. If you can’t find the one you want, make your own. Most of the reading guidelines I found focused on reading through the Bible in a year to three years. I wanted to go through faster. I counted the chapters in each book of the Bible and then used that number to create a reading guide that could be used to get through the Bible in one month to three months. The key is to find one that works for you, or you won’t work it.
• Create a reading place. Get everything ready the night before so you can sit down and start reading as soon as you wake up. Make sure that you will be warm and comfortable and that you don’t have to worry about others being disturbed by your reading.
• Start with a little bit and work up from there. Little bits are the building blocks to world-changing attitudes. I started reading a Proverb every day (the one to correspond with the day of the month). I added the Psalms next (5 a day most days, 6 on some to keep from having to read 119 with any others). Finally, I created the guideline for the entire Bible. Start with your little bit to build a habit for making God first.
• Focus on today. The best thing about the reading guide I made is the date specificity. Each reading coincides with a day of the month (like reading through Proverbs only with the whole Bible). You don’t have to worry about what you read yesterday. Just read for today and let yesterday take care of itself.

Quote of the Day – Make God First

The only way to get there is to start. If you want to make God first in your life, then you start by making God first in your day. If you’re going to make God first in your day, then you start by making God first in your TODAY.

It’s one choice at a time, but when you make the choice for a better focus, you’ll find hope shows up as well.

# # #

Are you ready to develop a habit of reading the Word? 90 Days through the Bible offers daily readings, prompts, and challenges to help you find your way to put God first.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Email | RSS | More