If we keep God first, He will take care of us; so how do we do that?  Trust God in your circumstances and give God all the glory.  One of the greatest pitfalls we face in our day-to-day lives is allowing desire to turn into desperation.  Whatever we desire most is where we are most vulnerable.  What we lack, want, or need is where the true battle is.  If something will kill you if you don’t get it, look out because whatever begins with desire, if not guarded can turn into desperation.  Recently, I was doing some work for a friend and I mentioned how great their yard looked and what they said hit me, “I didn’t do a thing; it was all God.”  I knew when I heard those words that there was more to it than I realized at the time.  I hadn’t put all the pieces together until now.  More times than not, situations are better left alone, but often times, we think that God needs our help to accomplish His will.  When we want or need something so bad, we can easily get into the mindset of “whatever it takes.”  God knows this and so does the enemy which is why very few if any good decisions are made out of desperation.

Not getting things we want or being how we want to be can easily lead to insecurity.  What we must never forget is that the Spirit of Christ lives in us and that we house the greatest sense of value there is.  When we think we need something or someone to be complete, we are headed down a dangerous path because in trying to obtain perfection we can easily lose any sense of distinctiveness.  God has created all of us individually and sometimes we need to ask ourselves if we are seeking the approval of men or God.  Just as anything we place before God is an idol, anyone or anything we try to win the approval of enslaves us to them or it.  Christ is the only One we can be a servant to and still be free and His approval is so much easier to attain than that of men since He doesn’t change His mind or opinion.  He is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. 

The other part to keeping God first is being quick to give God the credit.  It doesn’t matter how big or how small the instance – you got the promotion, praise God!  You got a parking spot close to the store, praise God!  Every good gift comes from our Father in heaven and we were never designed or created to contain glory; we were made to glorify God and give Him praise.  The higher we go, the more humility we should have because God will not share His glory; at some point, He will remove His hand of favor.  “Humble yourself, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”  (1 Peter 5:6)  If we don’t humble ourselves, He will humble us.  What took years to build can come down in the blink of an eye.  Pride is the reason for many falls from greatness and it poisons our spirit.  I’m often drawn back to story of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30 when he says, “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built, by the might of my power for the honor and glory of my majesty.  While the words were still in his mouth a voice came down from heaven and said, ‘Nebuchadnezzar, this day the kingdom has departed you.’”  God opposes the proud, but gives favor to the humble; it is His goodness that gets us places and it is His mercy that keeps us there.

There is no limit to how far God will take us if we will stay small in our own eyes and give God the credit.  “Whatever I am now, it is because God poured out His special favor.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)  Remembering where we came from helps us to stay grateful for all the Lord has done in our lives.  We should never lose the amazement of what God has done through all the victories in our life.  The miracles in our life must never be too old to excite us anymore.   Even in our times of smallness, He is preparing us for greatness; all we need to do is trust God in our circumstances and give Him the honor and glory He so richly deserves.