Putting God First

Before Dad went into the ministry, we had a small farm near Campo, Colorado.  In order to make enough to support the family, it was also necessary for him to do various other things on the side, including remodeling homes and doing electrical work.  One of my biggest pleasures as a child was to get to go to work with him.  Sometimes he would let me help him hold aboard while he sawed it or nail sheetrock to the studs as high as I could reach.  When he was doing electrical work, I could keep the Romex wires from tangling, or measure out the water for mixing concrete.   While it made me feel really important, the best part was just being there with my dad.  Years later, I began to realize that Dad didn’t really need my help.  A lot of times, it probably would have been easier to have done the Job without me in the way, but he took me along because he loved me.   

God is our heavenly father.  He created the entire universe by himself, and he doesn’t need any help from us to accomplish his plan.    Acts 17:24 tells us, “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”  Like my dad, because he loves us, God allows us to “help” him so he can spend time with us, even though it would be easier without us in the way. 

When I was eleven, Dad was in charge of a group of volunteers building a church in Willard, Missouri.   He made some patterns and built a jig, assigning a group of college students to assemble the roof trusses, while he and some more experienced carpenters laid out and framed the walls.  One of the college students convinced the others that it would be easier if they did things a little differently than Dad had instructed.   When I tried to tell them that Dad said it had to be the way he said, they laughed at me and went ahead doing it the way they decided.  After all, they were much older and smarter than a little eleven year old.

When Dad came over and saw how they were building the trusses, he had to make them take them apart, and redo them the proper way.  Only part of the material was able to be reused.   It took several days to disassemble what they had built, obtain additional materials, and build new trussed because they had decided to do things their own way. 

Because I had developed a close relationship with my dad, I understood that for everything to work properly, things had to be done the way Dad told us to do them.   The college students had been more interested in doing things the easiest way possible, rather than in in doing them the proper way, and what they produced was unacceptable, simply because they didn’t bother to follow instructions. 

Today, many Christians are like those college students, too busy trying to get the Lord’s work done as fast and easily as possible to take the time to find out how God wants things done.  They are not willing to take the time to develop a proper relationship or understand why he wants things a certain way.  Their efforts actually hinder rather than help God’s work.   When we develop a proper relationship with God, we will be more concerned with what he wants than with what we are doing.  As a result, our efforts will not be hindering his plans. 

When we get caught up in what we are doing, we may neglect the Lord and become like a wife who is so busy keeping the house perfect that her husband feels unwelcome in his own home.   A farmer’s wife was so caught up in keeping her home clean that when he was injured in and accident she wouldn’t even allow them to bring him in the house while they waited for an ambulance to arrive because e they might make a mess.  Though she was supposedly doing it “for him,” apparently a clean floor was more important than his life was.     Christians can get so caught up in “the Lord’s work” that God himself doesn’t matter. 

For either a marriage, or a Christian life to be satisfactory, the relationship must take priority over activities.  Just as Dad was able to do the job without my help, or a husband can clean and cook for himself, God is able to do what needs done without our help.   We are his children, not his slaves, and he wants to spend the time with us, not to see how much work he can get out of us.  We need to put him ahead of our “ministry.”  Far too often people make the ministry their god.