Every working man knows the order of a morning. You feed before you eat. You check water before you check your phone, if you’re any account at all. Some things go first because everything else depends on them.
Jesus said it plain: seek his kingdom first. Not after the busy season. Not once the kids are grown and the place is paid off. First. And then he attached a promise to it that ought to stop us in our tracks: everything else you need will be taken care of.
Here’s what we do instead. We give God the leftovers and wonder why we feel behind. We put first things fourth and then ask him to bless the pile. It’s not that we don’t love him. It’s that we’ve got something more important to do, which, if you say it out loud, is a hard sentence to stand behind. What is more important than the only important thing in eternity?
First doesn’t mean most hours. It means first claim. First say. The seat at the head of your table.