FIRST, NOT LAST

(Guest post by: Trent Claybaker)

Last Sunday, the small group that I am part of gathered for life conversations, worship, and a message that hit home for me. It’s a frequent occurrence for things to come out of the gospel that hit home to some degree or another. Especially when you take the time to really dig into the meat of the message and discern what God is directly speaking to you!

I will preface the remainder of this post by stating that I am probably stealing a little bit of something that everyone contributed to our conversation that morning. Our little group is always so full of good stuff, borrowing – with no intent to return, is kind of easy.

Earlier in the week, I received a text from a family member stating that he may need my help as he was at a loss. His message went on to say that his son’s drinking had again gotten completely out of control.

Unfortunately, his son has had several extremely bad experiences with his drinking, and one would think that this wouldn’t be happening again! He texted, “After all the crap he’s done, I just don’t know what to do anymore!” He finished that first text with, “Any insight that you may be able to provide would be awesome.”

My very first text response back was, “Have you prayed?” We proceeded to text back and forth for the next half hour or so. My final text, “I’ll seek the Lord’s counsel and talk with you soon. I suggest that you as well, do the same.” As most of you know, things like this don’t just happen.

While we all are innately moronic, habits of any type, good or bad, are taught, learned, or dare I even say, fostered and/ or encouraged. Sunday morning, I shared with our group what was transpiring and my bestie said, “Thanks for sharing! Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13 as that is where the Lord told me to go with y’all.”

The love chapter! What in the world? I know I love my family, and I know for sure that love is most certainly reciprocated.

1 Corinthians 13 is only thirteen verses but, the last is where we find ourselves most often not putting the proper weight. 13:13 reads, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” While love is indeed the greatest, we really can’t have love and/ or faith, without hope.

Hope is an Eager Expectation. The text I received the other day was a cry for that hope. There is always a cry for hope when we don’t know where else to turn! Notice that I did not write HELP. It’s a given that we are all in need of help. But what we are really calling out for is HOPE.

Here is my question. Why is it that the first place we should go for any answer (hope) to any of our questions or situations, is typically our last?

I am truly preaching to myself right here! I often believe that I know enough, am smart enough, or can get through anything by myself. But like most of you, if we are going to be transparent, when I get to the end of my rope, THAT is when I seek the Lord! Continuing with the transparency, you’d think that with all that Jesus has done for me, I would go to him with everything FIRST.

The fact of the matter is, I am continuing to work on taking everything to Him FIRST instead of wasting time to get where I should have started! Jesus Christ is quite literally the source for every challenge, trial, and tribulation that we will encounter.

Romans 15:13 should be our anthem for this hope. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The only prerequisite is that we TRUST in Him. Dear reader, let me ask you something. What have you got to lose but to trust Him? How has it been going for you when you try it on your own?

Really Trent, how has it been going for YOU when YOU give it a whirl on your own? I think we have the same answer… not so well.

While I am certainly grateful that my family comes to me in their moments of need, I would encourage them, myself, and all of you as well, make God first and not last. No matter what we think, going to Him first will always get the best results!