My First Post
Is “My First Post” anything like “my first car” or “my first pet” or “my first…?” I remember thinking there was no car as wonderful as my first car. Until many years later, when I now have a car my sisters all think I should ditch, but I love so much that I can’t imagine doing away with it. And while my first pet holds a special place in my heart, can I say that I loved Moses more than I loved Tiger who came years later? Perhaps my first post will be like that, something I love right now because it is new and exciting, but a post that one day will (hopefully) be outdone by other posts much more wonderful than the first.
The word “first” can have more than one meaning. Usually we think of “first” as the beginning item in a chronological order of items. But “first” can also mean the best of all choices. When someone wins first place, they have been chosen as the best at whatever they are doing even if they were not the chronological first to perform or participate in that activity.
No matter what or who we have loved first (chronologically,) God wants to be our first love in that He is to be the one and only top love, now and always, with absolutely no one and no thing loved more than we love Him. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love anything else. In fact, God makes it clear that if we don’t love people, we don’t really love Him! It just means that God wants and deserves preeminence in our hearts.
Our chronological first love most likely was not our Creator. We probably loved our parents or friends or spouse or children or job or money or fun or pets or…whatever, long before we loved God. Even now, we may love any of those things far more than we love Him. But my first car did not turn out to be my best car ever, and my first pet did not turn out to be the one to give me the most joy ever. Similarly, our first love(s) can never be our best love if it or they are something or someone other than God our Creator, the Lord of all, the one and only one who loves us with a completely pure and everlasting love, the one who deserves our utmost love and allegiance.
Herein lies my heart and the reason for this blog. To remind myself and anyone who will listen, that the Sovereign of the universe, Jesus Christ Himself, is to be our greatest love now and always, our “first” love as in “above all else.” Scripture reminds us that we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Why must that be? Because He first (chronologically AND best) loved us!
John the Apostle wrote, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) THAT is love. And that is the best love ever. Because God loves us so greatly, we are to love Him…first.
Chronological firsts may be good. Firsts, as in bests, are better. May all of us find ourselves loving God with all that we are. He may not have been our chronological first love, but may He now and forever onward be our first, as in above all else, best love.
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12 Comments
Zelda Smith
Oh Carolyn, Your first love may be math dear One, but God is using you in a very special way to share His love to the world. You have been given a holy appointment and you are responding in faithfulness. Continue to declare His word, His love, fearlessly now and forever onward!
cthigpen377
Zelda, thank you for your precious words of encouragement. Please pray that I will simply walk faithfully with joy. I really think that is what the Lord wants from each of us! Blessings on you as you keep blessing others!
Patricia Northcutt
Amen!
cthigpen377
Thanks for reading and encouraging offline, Trish. God is good!
Judy Smith
I LOVE your FIRST post! Your gift of words will surely bless many.
cthigpen377
Thanks, Judy. You know your encouragement is part of what God used to get me to this point. Please just keep praying that I listen well and walk well with Him in this new adventure!
Donna
Very graciously written.
May the Lord bless and direct you.
cthigpen377
Thanks, Donna. Your encouragement means a lot.
Debbie Heath
May God continue to direct you and your gift of words will bless soooo many.
Grace be with you ❤️
cthigpen377
Debbie, thank you so much. That is my prayer! May His grace be with you, also!
Annette Phillips
Wow!! What a great way to spend my time on this lonely morning.( I recently lost my husband and am spending my first Thanksgiving alone in 65 years) Not only did it lift my, spirit but it introduced me to someone I know, and now see in a completely light. Call it what you may, but I really needed those chosen words from God, at this time and place. Thanks, I will go back and read it again and again for it is a lot to absorb, and I am sure it will bring me comfort on those days when I’ll admit I find it hard to be thankful or pray.
Thanks for the reminder. Annette
cthigpen377
Dear Annette, thank you for so much for your note. For you and for many, this year’s holidays are not hard just because it is 2020, but because we are facing special days without ones we love. God’s grace is what I will call it…that these words lifted your spirits. Not just His general grace but the personal grace that says He knows your name. That He would take me from somewhere I thought would be my final profession and move me to write publicly just at a time when you might need to hear what He put in my heart…these things are God’s serendipities, as I call them, or God winks, as others call them, the personal touches from our Father to the hearts of His children that remind us He is with us and loves us more than we realize. May He hold you closely throughout the coming month and comfort you even more than this with His grace and His presence.