The Benefits Of Putting God First In Your Life.

The modern world is full of distractions that can seem overwhelming. So many things require our attention that we end up overlooking our relationship with God. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Not everything I that distracts us is bad. Our jobs, families, hobbies, and friends are okay. But they can be sources of distraction at some point.

It is possible to take time of our busy schedules and put away things that need our attention? What does it really mean to put God first? How can someone give God priority in their life? And what are the benefits of letting God take control of our lives?

What does it mean to put Good first in your life. Matthew 6:33 talks about seeking God’s kingdom first and of benefits that follow this instruction. God cannot ask us to do something that is beyond our capacity. So if He told us to do it, that means we can.

All the things that other people are chasing after are added to us if we put God first. What an amazing reality this is. To put God first means giving Him top priority in our lives and letting Him take charge. It means having a personal relationship and fellowship with the creator of the Universe.

The first commandment states; you shall have no other God’s before me. Yet, the truth is so many things take the place of God in our lives. Most people, including believers are to busy chasing after money, attention, and influence instead of God.

Why is that?

It is because most of us believe “other gods” are only graven images. But that is not the case. As long as you put anything before God, than that thing or person is a god. So, it is safe to say that any kind of distraction can be a god.

How to put God first in your life

For you to put God first in your life, you need to be intentional about it. It’s not something that you will only do once in a while. It needs to be a daily habit.

By putting God first in the right place, we will be able to live life more abundantly.

So, what are some that we can do habitually to ensure we put God first?

We need to check out our hearts frequently

Anything that we focus on excessively can be a distraction. Even our own feelings and wisdom. When we allow our emotions to take control instead of God we worshiping our feelings.

It’s good to check your heart frequently. This will help us know whether we are bowing to our feelings or God.

But how to do it? By asking the Holy Spirit to bring any feelings or distraction that is taking place of God to your attention. Ask Him to help you deal with it and then choose the to focus on God.

Dedicating our lives to serve Him

Get involved with church activities. This will help you to focus more on the things of God. Look at the different departments in your church and then settle for one that suits you spiritually. You don’t have to engage in all the church activities. Just ask God for direction.

For example, At my church we have communion once a month. And on special activities. And I get the communion ready.

Spend time on prayer and His word everyday. Even if it’s only 15 minutes a day it is to our benefit. We can discipline ourselves to take some time to fellowship with Him.

This time of fellowship will grow and allow us to receive inspiration and the guidance we so need in our lives. It will also enable us to enjoy other benefits of having God in our lives.

For example, we will become content in life even if we have little compared to others.

Set aside time to get closer to God. This can be early in the morning when you wake up or during the night before you go to sleep.

God has a plan for our lives, and it’s a great plan. When we give God priority, He directs us on the right path that we should take. But, if we refuse to let Him take charge, we risk missing our paths and finding ourselves in unnecessary trouble. Accept God’s guidance and you will find yourself making the right moves in your family, your career and life in general.

Many people are people pleasers. But that. But, that can change by allowing God to take change. Ask Him to help you depend on Him alone.

Giving God first priority means consulting with Him before making big life decisions

Have you ever rushed to make a decision only to regret it later? Knowing something was not right as you hurried to get through it. Did you feel pressed in your heart to wait but, you went ahead with a decision you could change once it’s been made?

Putting God first is not just about prayer and reading the word. We need to involve God in every area of our life.

You’ll experience Joy because you know that no matter the situation, it will all turn out for your good.

Trust The Process No Matter How Difficult

Do you trust the process of life? If you want to reach your desired destination, you need to surrender to the process, no matter how difficult it is.

When we allow life to reveal itself to us, we live in the present moment, knowing that we are exactly where we’re supposed to be. Unfortunately, a lot of people jump to far forward I’m their desire to reach there final destination, they forget about the journey, but this is where the magic lies.

But life and comfort don’t co-exist into days world, nothing is permanent, ant at any moment life can throw you a curve ball that could change the game. When you trust the process, you accept and have faith in the unknown. You step outside your comfort zone and allow life to guide you along your journey.

Let go of fear and stop trying to control life. As your faith is strengthened you will find there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them to your great delight and benefit. Are you ready to believe in yourself and trust the process?

Are you ready to get back up when life knocks you down?

What Is stopping you from trusting the process?

Fear can play a big role. A lot of people don’t like the process because they fear that it’s not going to lead them down the path that want. If they don’t seen results fast enough, they get discouraged and give up all together. People look too far froward and obsess about the end result. But, what about the small milestones that you need to take in order to reach your final destination?

There are four ways that you can learn to trust the process of life:

  • Be Resilient. When faced with adversity it can be difficult to trust the process. Thoughts of “Why me” may surface, causing you to doubt your ability to move forward. This is the moment at which you need to thought stop. Why no you? Life happens to all of us, and it’s our responsibility to either rise above our circumstances or give up.

If you believe that everything is in your control drop that story now. Change is the only constant. Resilient people surrender to uncertainty. They understand that we have very little control what happens in life, and by adopting this mindset they have trust in the process.

I have learned over many years of trying to control my life. And being in constant worry over every little thing. Nothing was really ever control in my life. I was choosing to let it destroy me instead of trusting the process and worrying constantly for something I had no control of.

  • Embrace The Unknown. Humans dislike ambiguity of any kind. Anything that doesn’t feel safe, stable, and comfortable feels dangerous. The fact of the matter is that we don’t know what life will throw at us, but if we embrace the unknown and get comfortable being uncomfortable, we will better prepared for anything.

There are no guarantees in life. Don’t predict the future. But, focus on what you can control which is the present moment. When you do you’ll be creating your life, moment by moment with zero attachments to what could be.

  • Focus On Your Purpose. When in doubt focus on your purpose. Trusting the process is about accepting that hardships will happen along your journey to success, but having confidence that every lesson is bring you closer to fulfilling your purpose in life. Whether you want to believe it or not, failure is a good thing. It is proof that you were trying.

When you commit to being persistent and carrying on, despite the odds, the universe will reward you. I encourage you to adopt a positive mindset and find ways to appreciate every experience, both good and bad, that is bringing you one step closer to embodying your purpose. In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experience that shaped you.

  • Practice Gratitude. Our perspective on life dictates the thoughts that we feel and the decisions that we make. We all find ourselves dwelling on regrets that make us feel anxious but we need to focus on the good we are creating

We need to be able to snap out of ruminative thoughts of regret. And focus on the gratitude we have in life.

Once you trust process, your path in life becomes clearer.

Life is tough, but so are you. When you learn to trust the process and have gratitude for how far you’ve come, you will be abundantly rewarded. Why are you trying to go anywhere else, other that where you currently are?

Learn to fall in love with the here and now, knowing that life is going to give you exactly what you need if you are brave enough to ask for it.

Trust the process you will discover a lot about yourself through hardship.

Steps To Reinvent Yourself

When you learn to make reinventing yourself a habit, change doesn’t seem so scary.

When it comes to the topic of how to change your life or “reinvent yourself,” a lot of us believe that we only have up to a certain age to make meaningful changes.

And after that age or cut off point, we lose out chance and it all goes downhill.

Change your beliefs. If I can do it anyone can. I didn’t think I would ever be happy with my life, I felt like a complete failure. That there was no help for me.

But, if you set your mind to it, you can do it. It took me a great disappointment in my marriage before I changed but it doesn’t have to be that way for you.

Give Yourself Permission To Change.

How you change your life for the better starts

This is an obvious one but a lot of us fight change even when we say we want it. We hang on as tight as possible to what we know because we fear the unknown.

I thought if I tried to change my life my husband would leave me, then I would really be in a mess. Things needed to be the same of he wouldn’t love me.

The act of giving yourself permission to change doesn’t mean that you’ll lose everything. It only means that you’re okay with whatever else wants to come.

In my case I was so exhausted of fighting for what I thought my husband wanted. I was ready to give up. I couldn’t take anymore.

I packed a bag, and left while my husband was I worked, I was so ashamed of myself I could even face him to tell him I was leaving. I didn’t know where I was going. I just got in the car and starting south. 4 hours later after I stopped shaking and bawling my eyes out. I called my sister. And I started for her house.

Pay Attention To The Signs Of Change.

They say every 7 years a change in life happens. Some call it a life cycle. Some of us feel it and the rest ignore it. I don’t know if this is wat happened in my situations. But, pay close attention to this and usually spot a shift when the life cycle starts.

Usually, when it’s time for a change, I’ve noticed that little things signs start to happen that things need to change.

The signs of change usually start out as subtle things. But as you ignore them, they become bigger until bit feels like you have to push 20 times harder for the same results. It feels like your always pushing a boulder uphill.

Usually at this point this is where the world tells you to grit your teeth and push through it.

But when you’re working from the inside out, you’ll realize reason to grit your teeth for anything any longer.

I felt I was at the point I had nothing to lose.

There is always path of least resistance to every journey you want to take when your working with your innate intelligence.

Happiness Tips For People Who Have Been Hurt

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Maybe someone hurts you physically or emotionally. Maybe you’ve survived something else traumatic- a national disaster, a fire, an armed robbery. Or maybe you’ve just come out of a trying situation, and though you know you’ll eventually recover, you still feel pain that seems unbearable.

Whatever the case may be, you’ve been scarred and you carry it with you through many of your days,

Most of us can relate on some level to that feeling. Even people who excel at taking personal responsibility have at least one story of having been hurt. Some of us have endured more serious situations, you really can’t quantify or compare emotional pain.

To a teenager who just had her heart broken, the pain really seems like the end of the world. In fact a study done by in 2018, Livestrong estimates that every 100 minutes a teenager commits suicide- and the number of suicides in high-income families is the same as in poor families.

Presumably, not all those teens have suffered incomprehensible tragedies. What they have in common is pain, born from different adversities and circumstances.

When you’re hurting some people might tell to “let it go,” as if that’s a valid solution. They may say “it’s all in you head” and assume that reasons away the pain. But, none of that will help you heal and find happiness from moment to moment.

My husband used to tell me “it’s all in your head” every time I would get hurt, he didn’t realize I was highly sensitive and easily got hurt. It didn’t make the pain go away, it just made me hurt worse because he didn’t try to understand what I was going through.

Like everyone I’ve been hurt, in both profound and trivial ways. I’ve had to acknowledge my feelings and process them, and then finds ways to work through them so I could let go and move on.

Here’s What Helped Me Do Just that:

It’s not always easy to identify and understand what’s going hurting you. Some people even stay in abusive relationships because it’s safer than acknowledging their are layers of pain. The low self-esteem that convinces them they deserve their abuse, they shame over being treated with such cruelty, and the feeling of desperation that convinces them there’s no way out.

The first step toward finding happiness after being hurt is to understand why you were hurt, to get to the root of everything that makes the memories hard.

Feel And Express Pain

There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to communicate how you feel to the person who hurt you, and if you can, there’s no guarantee they’ll respond how you want them to. Say what you need to say anyway. Write in a journal, write a letter and burn it. Get it all out.

This will help you understand why you’re hurting and what you’ll do in the future to avoid simulator pain, so you can feel empowered instead of victimized.

Research has proven that people who focus on lessons learned while journaling find the experience more helpful than people who don’t.

Try And Stay In The Present

Reliving the past can be addictive. It gives you the opportunity to do it again and respond differently- to fight back instead of submitting, to speak your mind instead of silencing yourself. It also allows you to possibly understand better. What happened? Where did you go wrong? What should you have done?

Regardless of what you think you should have done you can’t do it now. If you have post- traumatic stress disorder, you may need professional help to revisiting the incident. If you don’t, you need sustained effort. Fight the urge to relive the pain over and over. You can’t go back and find happiness there.

Stop Rehashing The Story

Sometimes we tell a sad story over and over again as a way to avoid moving on from the past.

It may seem like another way to understand what happened, or maybe it feels helpful to hear someone say you didn’t do anything wrong and you don’t deserve to hurt. And it’s okay if you need that for awhile.

But if you do this for years it keeps you stuck living your life around a memory and giving it power to control you.

No amount of reassurance will change what happened. You can’t find happiness by holding onto a painful story and letting it control your life. You can only find happiness when you let go and make room of something brighter.

If telling your story empowers you and helps other people, then by all means share. Only you know where you are mentally and emotionally and whether telling your story is hurting or helping you.

Forgive Yourself

This was a constant for me, it steamed from my childhood. It took me years to learn how to stop blaming myself and let the burdens of other’s go. Maybe you didn’t do anything wrong but you blame yourself. This one was a constant in my life, Or maybe you played role in creating your current situation. Regardless of what happen, you need to realize what you did is not who you are. And even if you feel immense regret, you deserve to start today without carrying that weight. You deserve a break.

You can either punish yourself or submit to misery, of forgive yourself and create the possibility of happiness. It comes down to whether you decide to dwell or move on. Which do you choose: anger with yourself and prolonged pain, or forgiveness and the potential of peace?

Stop Playing The Blame/Victim Game

Maybe you were the victim. Maybe someone said or did horrible things to you, or you fell into an unfortunate set of circumstances through no fault of your own, it still doesn’t serve you to sit around having pity for yourself. Blaming other people. In fact, it only holds you back. You can’t feel good if you sit around feeling bad for yourself or the other’s person’s actions.

I have a therapist tell me one time you are allowed to only have one pity party a week the next month. After a few months I didn’t have them at all.

The only way to experience happiness is to take responsibility for creating it, whether other people made it easy for you or not. You’re not responsible for what happened to you I the past but you are responsible for your attitude now. Why let someone hurt you over in the past have power over you in the present?

Don’t Let Pain Become Your Identity

If everything you do and all your relationships center around someone or something that hurt you, it will become harder to move and hence, ruining all your other relationships. You may even come to appreciate what that identity gives you: the illusion of understanding or the warmth of compassion.

You have to consider the possibility there’s a greater sense of happiness in completely releasing your story. That you’d feel better that you can ever imagine you’d stop letting your pain define you. You can have a sad story in your past without building your present around it.

Reconnect With Who You Were Before The Pain

It’s not easy to release a pain identity, if you’ve carried it around with you along time. It may help to remember who you were before that experience or to consider who you were before the experience or to consider who you might have become if you hadn’t been hurt at all. You can still be that person, someone who doesn’t feel bitter or angry so often.

If you want to feel peaceful and happy, start by identifying what that looks like, what you think about, what you do, how you interact with people. Odds are this process will remind you how you want to be and how you don’t want to be.

Focus On Things That Bring You Joy

You don’t have to focus on completely letting go of your pain forever, you just have to make your own joy right now. Start simple. What’s something that you can enjoy in this moment, regardless of what pain you’ve experienced. Would sitting in the sun bring you joy? Would going out on a date with friends bring you joy?

Don’t think about the totality of the rest of your day’s. That’s a massive burden to carry haven’t you been hurt enough. Focus on now, and allow yourself a piece Little peace. You’ll be surprised how easily your nows can add up when you focus on them as they come.

Share That Joy With Others

We tend to isolate ourselves when we are hurting because it feels safer than showing people your vulnerability. What we fail to realize is that we don’t have to be vulnerable all the time. We can choose certain people for support, and then allow ourselves time with other’s without involving our painful stories.

You can share a meal, a movie, a moment and give yourself a break from your anger and sadness. You don’t have to carry it through every moment of your day. Don’t worry if you need to remember it, you’ll still be able to recall it later. As you allow yourself pockets of peace, shared with people you love, you may find you need that story less and less.

You have a right to feel whatever you feel. And you don’t have to rush through your sadness or anger. We all need time to process our feelings. But there are time we need to consciously choose to heal, let go, and move on. It’s a process, and it won’t be easy. But you deserve it.

Every one deserves to feel happy. Every one deserves a little peace. We can only provide these things for ourselves.

I isolated myself in my house for nearly 25 years only going out to shop or doing something with my children was so deeply hurt by my childhood I was an empty shell. It’s took me all those year to realize I deserved love and respect.

Don’t make the mistakes I did, I was killing myself slowly. Choose today to be peaceful and happy