Scripture #4:Seek First

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

How could this one not be on my list? In all our lives there is going to be something we seek first. What is it for you? It may be something noble like the good of your marriage or the good of your family. For a few people it may be their country. It may be a long time dream or something you want to achieve. It may be something not so noble like your own pleasure or your own self-centered 

happiness. Something is going to be first in all our lives.

Create in Me a Pure Heart, O God

Counting down toward number one, this passage is a slam dunk for my list. Thirty-three years ago it sprang to life in me and helped set me on a new course. I had been a follower of Jesus for ten years, looking for ways to be used by him, but slowly and unknown to me my heart had grown hard.

I still preached and taught and wrote, and I still sat down with others and shared my faith. I still gathered my wife and children, and we worshipped God in our home. But I had become a negative presence. I had let bitterness come in and set up shop.

The Power of the Cross

Passage number six is 1 Cor. 1:18:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The first book DPI published was: Thirty Days at the Foot of the Cross. Now some 200 plus books later, it is still one of our most popular. In the introduction, eighteen years ago, I focused on this passage and then wrote the following words that describe my convictions:

a Challenge to Husbands

The seventh passage I want to share with you is  Ephesians 5:25-26:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.

Some of the passages are on my list because of the encouragement and hope they give me. That has been true of most of the passages I have shared so far. But some are on my list because of the direction and challenge they give. This verse definitely belongs in the second category. More than forty-one years ago a most wonderful young woman became my wife (by the grace of God), but I know myself well enough to know that without words like these found in Scripture, I could have moved from those exciting days of young love into a very selfish and ungrateful way of living.