When God is first, life aligns. Decisions steady, fear loosens, and the scramble for control begins to fade. This is the promise at the heart of Matthew 6:33: seek God’s kingdom before all else, and what we chase will follow in its proper order. It is not a slogan. It is a reordering of reality.
We resist this because it offends our instincts. We prefer ambition we can measure, comfort we can secure, and relationships we can manage. To place God first is to yield the illusion of mastery. It demands that we consult Him before we decide, trust Him when the path bends, and accept that clarity may come after obedience, not before. The language is simple, “trust in the Lord with all your heart” (see Proverbs 3:5-6), but the practice is severe.
The contrast is old and familiar. In Luke 10:38-42, Martha moves fast and does much; Mary sits still and listens. Both care, but only one chooses what endures. Busyness feels like faith because it looks useful. Attention, by contrast, looks like waste. Yet Jesus names attention the “better part.” The rebuke is not against work; it is against a life that treats God as an afterthought.
Priorities reveal themselves in firsts. First minutes of the day, first line in a budget, first allegiance in a conflict. We give our best to what we trust most. The old counsel, honor God with the first and best (see Proverbs 3:9), cuts through our excuses. If God receives what remains, He is not first. If He is not first, something else is.
This is the provocation: God does not compete; He claims preeminence. Place Him at the center and the rest will arrange itself, work, desire, provision, even worry. Refuse, and the fragments will keep shifting, never settling. The question is not whether we have priorities, but what sits at the top. Choose, and accept the order that follows.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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