Psalm 16:8

I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

-Psalm 16:8


I recently came accross this verse in the Bible.
One thing I struggle with is translating "what"
the verses mean. The key term for me that made me
read it twice was: "always before me." Which got
me thinking.... Hmmmm, do I always place God in
front? In high priority in my life? Nope, not
always. But I'm working on it.

Exodus 20:3 tells us, "You shall have no other gods
before me."

This verse is found in the Ten Commandments. In fact,
this is the very first commandment even listed. I believe
that there is something to be said as to why God lists
it first in terms of the commandments. There must be
something very important about placing nothing else
before God.

I was reading a blog the other day about priorities.....
When it comes to our priorities, how do we know what
is highest on the list? It’s easy to say, “My number one
priority in life is my family,” but if you continually put
family-time on the back-burner, can you really say it’s
your number one priority?

A person’s top priority in life is that thing, or person,
that he or she devotes himself to without fail. It’s the
thing that is always the underlying guide by which he or
she makes his or her decisions. If family is really number
one, then when it comes to choosing family-time or leisure
time by yourself, more often than not you’re going to choose
family-time.

So, should God be our top priority in life, and if so, what
does that even mean to us? Should my husband or daughters
be a higher priority in my life than God? While they
should be a high priority, pleasing God is still more
important than pleasing my family…If I’m pleasing God, then
that means that I’m doing what is, in the long run, best for
my family anyways, since He does have their interests in mind.
God wouldn’t be pleased by me doing things that would hurt my
family. But, that doesn’t mean that at times either my family
or I won’t have to sacrifice a little bit of family time for
what God is asking us to do.

While I find being with Joe and the girls to be one of my top
priorities, I can give up time with them to go to Bible Study
or teach Sunday school— Those things I’d do, not because I like
the time away from my family, but because I believe that God has
called me to do those things as a part of my ministry (as a
Christian Disciple).

Spiritual growth is very important to me. Some days I wake up
& honestly have no idea how I can become closer to God. Well I
can start by making him my #1 priority. How though? Well
everyone is different. I can start by reading my bible or start
a devotional & read it first thing in the morning. Waking up
just 30 minutes sooner than I normally do....can I do that for
Christ? I hope so!

He made the ultimate endeavor for us when he came to this earth
as a man in the person of Jesus Christ. I was His ultimate
priority when He chose to die on the cross in place of ME — He
died for MY sins so that I wouldn’t have to suffer eternity
without Him. He made it easy enough to get to heaven, that all
I have to do is accept His gift of forgiveness and believe that he
truly is
the Son of God. He did all this because

WE ARE HIS NUMBER ONE PRIORITY!