The Principle of First: Why God Says “Seek First”

Why does God care so much about being first?

Because whatever comes first shapes everything that follows.

In this episode, we’re unpacking the biblical principle of first—from Genesis to Matthew 6—and discovering why seeking God first isn’t another box to check but the foundation for peace, wisdom, and right order. When God has your first attention, every other decision begins to fall into its proper place.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the High Level Wife podcast, where we do marriage God's way. I'm Chelsea Holm, your hostess. And today we are carrying on this series. We talked about the foundation, right? It was about are you asking the wrong question? And today we're going to answer why is first so important? And it's not because God is insecure, it's because everything flows from what comes first. So we're gonna, we're gonna, we're titling this The Principle of First, Why God says seek first. Right? That Matthew 633, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So why is God always talking about first? Right? There's first fruits, firstborn, first love, seek first the kingdom, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Is God insecure? Well, he started it by saying no. Does he just want to be first because he's demanding? No. God knows that whatever is first determines everything that follows. First isn't about control, it's about order. God established first from the beginning. In Genesis 1, go all the way back to the beginning. God created order before he created function, light before life, foundation before flourishing. Everything in creation has order. Chaos is simply life lived outside of God's design. I want you to hear me on that again. Chaos is simply life lived outside God's design. And so many are experiencing that in marriage. The principle of first means that whatever comes first sets the direction for everything else. If anxiety comes first, then anxiety is going to interpret your day. If it's fear that comes first, it's going to make your decisions. If social media comes first, culture disciples your mind before scripture does. But if God comes first, everything else is filtered through truth. Think about taking a trip. If you don't put gas in your vehicle or make sure that the oil has been changed, that's going to impact your trip, isn't it? Because if you don't have gas, what you're going to run out of gas. That's going to impede your trip. That's going to change things, right? What about if you don't have money for gas? Are you going to be able to go on that trip? No, you're not. So we have there's an order to everything. I've said it before that it's like buying groceries and then trying to make dinner from the groceries that are not put away or still in your car. How ridiculous and chaotic and confusing is that? And things would go bad. That's the chaos that comes out of not living within God's design. Seek first the kingdom. Notice Jesus does not say here, seek the kingdom whenever you have time or seek the kingdom after you've handled life, right? Like put your life in order and then follow me. No, Jesus says the opposite of that. He says, all those things will take care of themselves. Follow me first. He says, first. Why? Because he knows your first attention shapes the rest of your day and ultimately your life. So when we talk about first attention, what is the first thing you think about in the morning? What's the first voice you listen to? What's the first thing you touch? What's the first thing that gets your best energy? Your first attention is often revealing your first affection. And here's the thing we can't control all the thoughts that pop into our head. But if you're waking up with the reels, the popular songs, the audio going through your head, and not worship music, that's telling you where your attention is going, what's getting your attention. And that's going to shape your day. Mary and Martha. Martha gave Jesus part of her attention. Right? She gave him the attention that wanted something from him. Asking him the question, demanding of him. But Mary gave him her first attention. And Martha wasn't evil here, right? We don't want to demonize Martha. Martha, Martha was doing good things, but she was doing them out of order. She was divided. But Mary chose the better portion because she understood order before activity. Let's look at Israel and first dependence in Exodus 16. The manna, God gave them daily bread. And it was good stuff, like frosted flakes, I've heard. You know, that's cool. It was not, it was not storing it up, no storing it up. Why? Because every morning he was teaching, come to me first, depend on me first, trust me first. Mana wasn't just provision, it was formation. But we often reverse the order. We solve first and then we pray. Right? We make the unhealthy food for dinner and then we ask God to bless it. Oh snap. Right? Think about that one. We worry first and then we seek God to help us in our worries. We scroll first, but then we read scripture. And now we're filtering scripture through the scroll.

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The scroll on our phone, not the scroll of the original Dead Sea Scrolls kind of thing. We react first and then we ask God for wisdom to navigate it. We fill our minds and then we wonder why we struggle to hear his voice. Because those things become the filter. There's this principle of overflow that whatever fills you first, you overflow later. So if you fill yourself with hurry, you'll overflow impatience. If you fill yourself with fear, you will overflow anxiety. But fill yourself with Christ and you'll overflow peace. Because the only way you fill yourself with Christ first is by abiding in him, and that is how the fruit of the Spirit is produced in us. Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So the question becomes what have you been filling your heart with first? So here, let's get practical, right? Because tomorrow morning is going to come. And is your opportunity to take a new approach to seek first his kingdom? So before your phone, seek him. As I said in that really short episode a couple days ago, get the old alarm clock out. The old analog, digital, whatever. Alarm clock. Keep your phone away from you and don't touch it until you've spent time with the Lord. Before you go to the news about what's happening in this world, seek him. Don't watch the news at all. Insider pro tip. There's no good news there. Right now, I'm not saying don't be involved in this world. We should be aware of this world and what's going on, but that can't be where we seek first. Before your to-do list, seek him. Give God your first attention, not your leftovers. Right? Just think of your husband. Do you want your husband's leftovers? Okay, now if we're talking about food, I sure do. I'm the leftover eater of our family. No, I'm talking about energy here and time. Do we do you want the leftovers from your husband? Think about your closest friend. Do you want her leftovers? No. No. Because this is this is about worship. It's not about checking the Bible reading box. It's about saying, Lord, before my kids, before my husband, before my work, before my responsibilities and my decisions. I want you to shape my heart. Because when God has your first attention, every other responsibility becomes an act of worship. This is why exercise for me is a spiritual act of worship. Because I'm sewarding the temple that God has given me, that He dwells in. His spirit dwells in me. So when we say seek first, this isn't another rule. This is an invitation. God's first command isn't about restricting your life. The world says that marriage is a restriction of our freedoms. No, that's backwards. That's wrong order. That's about rightly ordering our life because whatever has your first attention will shape every decision that follows. Matthew 6.33, you guys are going to memorize this if you have not, one way or another, okay? The more you listen to this, we're going to keep talking about this because this is such an anchor for us. It is the anchor where everything flows from. Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. God isn't asking to be first because he needs it. He's asking to be first because you do.