'God First - Me 2nd'

O LORD God, who inhabits eternity,

The heaven declare thy glory,

The earth thy riches,

The universe is thy temple;

Thy presence fills immensity,

Yet thou has of thy pleasure created life,

and communicated happiness;

Thou has made me what I am, and given me 

what I have;

In thee I live and move and have my being;

Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation,

and wisely administers all my affairs.

I thank thee for thy riches to me in Jesus,

for the unclouded revelation of him in thy Word,

where I behold his Person, character, grace, glory, 

humiliation, sufferings, death, and resurrection;

Give me to feel a need of his continual saviourhood, 

and cry with Job, 'I am vile', 

with Peter, 'I perish', 

with the publican, 'Be merciful to me, a sinner'.

Subdue in me the love of sin,

Let me know the need of renovation as well as

of forgiveness,

in order to serve and enjoy thee for ever.

I come to thee in the all-prevailing name of Jesus,

with nothing of my own to plead,

no works, no worthiness, no promises.

I am often straying,

   often knowingly opposing thy authority,

   often abusing thy goodness;

Much of my guilt arises from my religious privileges,

   my low estimation of them,

   my failure to use them to my advantage,

But I am not careless of thy favor or regardless of 

   thy glory;

Impress me deeply with a sense of thing

   omnipresence, that thou art about my path,

   my ways, my lying down, my end.

GOD THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD, The Valley of Vision; Puritan Prayers and Devotions

"God first- me 2nd" my pastor said during his message about the importance of prayer on Sunday.

The simplicity of his words jostled my memory.

When I was a nanny, about 24 years old,  I worked for an eye doctor who offered to perform Lasik surgery on my near sighted eyes.  I obviously jumped at the opportunity to never need glasses again!

However, when I went in for my pre-op appointment I went through a series of tests and during one test I passed out.  Was it a fluke?  I still am not sure but what I do know is that through that experience I was faced with the reality that I had not even prayed about the surgery and whether or not I should go ahead and have it done.

Had I really thought I could just make such an important decision without acknowledging the One who is over my life and who I declare to be my Lord?  Just because the opportunity was dropped into my lap did not make this a no brainer.

As a result of this event I decided to not have the surgery.  As I prayed I realized that God was the God of my eyes and maybe it just wasn't the best time for me to have the surgery for whatever reason, I was not going to pretend that I knew best.  So I canceled the surgery.

Years passed, and at times I regretted not having the surgery done, as being a very active and clumsy individual proves to be a detriment to the life of eye glasses, not to mention I had developed a broken blood vessel on the side of my nose.

The little boy that I had been a nanny for grew up and it was time for him to graduate and so, obviously, I knew I would see his dad again.

So this time I prayed,

"Lord- if it is ok with you I would really love to have Lasik surgery so if it is ok could you have him come right up to me and ask me himself?"

My family and I drove to the graduation party and right as we were released to enjoy the food, the doctor made a bee line for me and said,

"Nan, why don't you let me fix your vision."

I was shocked.  Here this man had no idea that I had prayed the way that I did and he, as if a puppet on a string, came right up to me and did the very thing that I asked God for!

Recognizing God as Sovereign is what my pastor meant when he said "God first - me 2nd"

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.....  

God FIRST!

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

....all things were created through him and FOR HIM.  

me 2nd!

Sometimes I am totally unaware of my own sovereign rule over my life.  So as I seek His face in the morning I ask, I seek and I knock so that I can be receptive and submitted to the God of all good.

Psalm 5:1-3

Give ear to my words, O LORD;

consider my groaning.

Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God,

for to you do I pray.

O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for 

you and watch.

This morning I asked that He would make His presence known to those who are suffering as I read the plight of Job and realize that he endured great pain and loss but he understood "God first- me 2nd".