God is Always First – What Does that Mean?

It has been said, “God is always first.” This refers to something called the “First Principle” in theology. It means that nothing in life or creation operates independently of God, not even the wicked. Likewise, if we care about our relationship with God or serve God, it is only because He ordains it so.

Psalms 80:18-19 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 19 Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Have you experienced God’s quickening? Only because God wills it so not on general principles but by a determinate act of His will. God’s blessings are not available on the same basis; for instance, electricity in your community. The head of the electric company doesn’t know you, but that person makes the utility available in any case. God doesn’t do things that way. Psalms 40:5 tells us that God’s thoughts toward us are without number. What that means is that He has such a capacity for independent thought that it cannot be tapped. He is the ultimate multi-tasker, meaning He can hold you in His regard with an intensity and intimacy that is incomprehensible and yet know the hairs on every head of the 8 billion people on the earth.

God is always first. What that means is that seeking God was never your idea. A.W. Tozer said that man in pursuit of God is like a mouse in pursuit of a cat – it doesn’t come naturally. Bob Mumford once observed that we run from God all our lives, and the Holy Spirit, like the hound of heaven, chases us down, puts His foot in our neck, and says, “Do you give up?” Then we dare to go to the meeting next Sunday and say we found the Lord. We didn’t find the Lord; we weren’t looking for Him! Jesus speaking along these lines said:

[Jhn 6:44 KJV] 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

In John 1:13, we read that we are born into the kingdom not by the will of man but by God’s will – by God’s choice and not ours. In Eph. 2:8, we read that we are saved by faith and that not of ourselves but of God. Saving faith doesn’t originate in us; it originates in God. There are three passages in the New Testament (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5; Eph. 1:11) that declare that our salvation is a matter of predestination before God. That word means preordained or decided before we were ever born.

What is the take away in this? There is another doctrine called “irresistible grace,” which basically means we were intended from the beginning of the world by God to come to faith. Some groups and denominations take this all out of proportion and get into false doctrine over this, but nonetheless, these verses are compelling. They show us the majesty and might of God toward His people and toward you as an individual. He thought you up long before He ever said, “Let there be light…” He ordained that you should walk with Him. Let the implications of that sink into your mind and be encouraged. He never appointed you to failure or suffering. He ordained you to life and life more abundant. Go out in your day expecting new life and blessing to follow you this day for you are special in God’s eyes not by your own merits or qualities but by God’s foreordained choice.