Keeping first things first

Happy New Year!

I know we’re almost into February but I can still wish you a happy 2024.

My prayer for you this year is you will experience God’s holiness, goodness, kindness, and faithfulness in meaningful and powerful ways that will draw you closer to His heart and desires for these days. It is time to embrace the authority and power we carry because the Spirit of the Living God dwells in us.

Recently, I was reading through the plagues in Exodus. Most of the miracles Moses did, the Egyptian magicians could copy. When they tried to imitate the plague of gnats, they couldn’t. Their response to Pharoah was, ‘This is the finger of God’.

Replicas and counterfeits are not new to the enemy’s strategies. From day one, he has been offering God’s people options that will distort their vision, confuse their minds, and draw them away from the truth, Jesus Himself.

My prayer with these occasional emails is that the truth of God's words, will liberate and empower you to speak and live in ways that others around you will say, ‘This is the finger of God.’

Remember the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1.Kings 18? Who was the true God? Baal or the Lord? The One who set fire to the wood would prove to be the true God.

The prophets of Baal called out to their god. They tried everything they knew to do. In their desperation, they danced, shouted, cut themselves, went completely hysterical. But their god remained silent and powerless.

When it was Elijah’s turn, he summoned the 450 prophets of Baal. They crowded around him. The first thing he did was to repair the altar. He did it God's way. He took twelve stones, one to represent each Israelite tribe. He laid the wood and bull on the altar, dug trenches around it, then doused it three times with water. Imagine what Baal’s prophets must have been thinking.

Then Elijah prayed: ‘“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord - he is God! Yes, the Lord is God.”’

Wow!

Notice Elijah didn’t once pray that God would send fire down from heaven. His prayer was that God would prove that He was God in Israel. He was concerned about the honour of God’s name. It had come into disrepute and needed to be restored.

God’s name is being disregarded today. He’s calling us, His daughters, to restore the honour of His name in our families, relationships, workplaces, communities, in the world.

Jesus taught His disciples to pray ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’ In other words, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy - restore the honour of your name.’ (Matthew 6:9)

Later on in the same chapter, Jesus says, ‘Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’

We live with a significant amount of distractions. Daily, conflicting messages, ideas, opinions, and strategies bombard us. No wonder many feel overwhelmed, confused, frustrated, and even paralysed.

How can we navigate another year with all that is to come when the honour of God’s name is at stake?

Keep first things first.

Seek the King of kings and His Kingdom. Restore the honour of His name in the way you think, speak, and live. He will do the rest.

David reminds us in Psalm 24:

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. The enemy is trying to hijack it but he can’t, for he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. He has got it all in hand.

Then he asks who can climb the mountain and stand in the holy place of the Lord?

Those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.

It’s time to rebuild the altars in our lives and to declare there is no one like our God.

Beautiful, powerful woman of God, rise up, open the gates and doors of your life and let the King of glory come in. Restore the honour of His name with your worship (your thoughts, words, and lifestyle).

Seek the Lord. He is strong and mighty, invincible in battle. Focus on Him.

Keep first things first. Expect His fire to fall so others will know He is the true God.

Cheering you on as you keep first things first in your life.