“Put God first.”
Or,
Realize that God is first.
God is the Author (beginning/past) and Finisher (end/future) of our faith. God is our Advocate and Help in time of need (right now in the present).
God is first. God moves first. God speaks first. God loves first. When we seek God, it is because we are being drawn to do so. Christ IS drawing (present tense) all people unto Himself. This is the pull we all feel toward goodness. God’s laws are written on our hearts. Yet we (all) are separated in our minds from God. We believe lies to be true about Him and truth about Him to be unbelievable.
God seems like an enemy to us. We choose our own way, because we believe there is no other Way to go. We cause harm because we believe we are broken and worthless. Separation from God is a false reality, but a reality nonetheless for those who walk in darkness.
How then can we be saved????
Christ was slain BEFORE the foundations of the world (first).
CHRIST CAME FIRST. Christ is first. Christ is all in ALL. Christ is above any and all gods who claim to be the One True God. There is no God but Christ for me; if God is like Jesus…that is very good news. It would mean that we have nothing to fear, other than the belief that He is like any other human being. If God is like any of us, even the best of us, that is very bad news. If we believe that lie, we will feel unacceptable, judged, abandoned, and used by a conditional love.
But if Christ is FIRST in our minds, if our reality is that of unity with God IN Christ…we will never feel separated from Goodness ever again. We might even believe that we are good. (!!!) But if the lie comes back to even suggest that we have been separated from the love of God (or the God of Love) we will recognize it as that same old lie and it will lose its power.
We will be SAVED through belief in Christ (unity with God through grace). No more separation. I am united with Goodness and made whole. I am good. I can know I am good and begin to live like it’s true. How scandalous.