“You shall have no other gods before me.”
— Exodus 20:3
Here is a simple test that will tell you more about your spiritual condition than almost anything else. Look at your checkbook, or your bank statement, or wherever your money goes. Look at your calendar. Look at what you think about when you have nothing you have to think about. What does it reveal? Because those three things (your money, your time, and your thoughts) tell the truth about where God actually ranks in your life.
I have said it this way: God does not want a place in your life, or even a prominent place. He demands preeminence. He will not be a bench player. He will not be satisfied with whatever is left over after everything else has been served. Jesus said it plainly: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). All is not most. All is not Sunday morning plus Christmas Eve. All is all.
This is both the most demanding and the most liberating truth in the Bible. Demanding, because it leaves no room for the divided heart we are all so tempted to maintain. Liberating, because when God is truly first, when He gets your whole heart and not just the portion you have allocated to religion, everything else finds its proper place. Your marriage improves because it is no longer carrying the weight of being your ultimate source of joy. Your career breathes because it is no longer the thing your identity depends on. Your money becomes a tool instead of a master.
I grew up watching Billy Graham preach to crowds that spanned every stadium in the world. And the message was always the same at the center: You must decide. Not drift. Not consider. Decide. Who is your God? The invitation of the First Commandment is not a burden. It is a rescue. It calls you out of the exhausting project of building your life around things that cannot hold it, and into the freedom of a life built around the One who can.
Take the test today. Not to condemn yourself, but to see clearly. And then do something about what you find.
PUT GOD FIRST. NOT IN THEORY, BUT IN YOUR TIME, YOUR MONEY, AND YOUR THOUGHTS.
