First Things First: Desire, Intention, and Persistence in a Life that Puts God First
As you walk through the first month of this new year, everything in your life is being shaped by what you choose to put first. Whatever is first governs what happens to the rest. When you decide that God will truly be first—first in your time, first in your thoughts, first in your decisions, first in your finances, first in your relationships—you are not just making a religious gesture; you are setting the pattern that the rest of your year will follow.
Jesus told us plainly in Matthew 6:25–34 not to live in anxious obsession over what you will eat, drink, or wear, or how the bills will be paid. He pointed you to the birds who do not sow or reap and yet are fed, and to the lilies who do not toil or spin and yet are clothed in a beauty greater than Solomon’s. Then He gave you the key: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
When you put God first, you are invited to relax your grip on constant worry and instead steep your life in God’s reality, God’s initiative, and God’s provision, trusting that your everyday human concerns will be met.
But you know that wanting a different kind of year is not enough. You may have already felt how easy it is to start strong and fade out. Statistics tell you that 90% of heart patients don’t follow through with the lifestyle changes needed after a heart attack, even when their lives are at stake. Around 45% of people make New Year’s resolutions, and only about 8% actually succeed. You probably recognize yourself somewhere in that picture.
What separates the few who truly change from the many who do not is not luck or special wiring; it is three things you can choose to cultivate right now: desire, intention, and persistence. Desire is more than a vague wish. It is a strong, burning want—for your family to be saved, for your spiritual gifts to be awakened, for your body to be healthier, your finances stronger, your calling clearer.
God tells you that when you pray, you must believe and desire what you are asking Him for. If you don’t want it deeply enough, you won’t sustain the drive to go after it. What you look at the longest becomes the strongest in your life. So this year, you are being invited to get a vision.
What do you see God doing in your life as you put Him first? Can you see your family restored? Your mind renewed? Your body stronger? Your finances aligned with Kingdom purpose?
Desire alone still is not enough. You need intention. Intention means you live on purpose instead of by accident. Before you even get out of bed in the morning, you can take five or ten minutes to see your day with God in it. You can picture God with you in that business meeting, God’s favor on that important phone call, God’s wisdom guiding that difficult conversation. You can begin to speak it and act like it, even down to how you dress, prepare, and equip yourself—whether that means grabbing your Bible, your notes, your briefcase, or whatever tools you need to walk out what you are believing for.
The truth is, there is no such thing as an unintentional life. Even doing nothing is an intention. If you are not consciously setting your direction, then passivity and restlessness begin to take root, and you spend your days reacting to what feels urgent instead of living for what is truly valuable. That is why you have to recognize that someone else’s emergency is not automatically your urgency. Galatians 6 teaches that you are responsible for your own “backpack”—your own boundaries, choices, and attitudes. You cannot make someone else intentional, but you can choose to be.
Intention is not vague hoping or wishing; it is a decision that says, “I am going to do this, no matter what,” and then takes quick, concrete action—learning how to share your faith if you say you want to win souls, blocking out time if you say you want to pray, structuring your work if you say you want to increase. Without decision and action, your best intentions evaporate.
Once desire and intention are in place, you are still going to face opposition, and that is where persistence comes in. If you truly expect a year of victory, you must expect resistance as well. The Bible is clear that battles come, but they are not bigger than your God. Persistence is your decision to go on resolutely and even stubbornly in spite of obstacles, delays, or discouragement.
The Syrophoenician woman is a powerful picture for you: she faced a crowd, dismissive disciples, cultural rejection, and even what sounded like a divine “not yet,” and yet she refused to back off her faith for her daughter. She was too desperate to be denied. That is the kind of persistence that refuses to quit.
Great people are not those who had everything easy; they are those who refused to settle for less than what God promised them. Your enemies, your setbacks, your “no’s” and “not yets” can become the very incubators of your greatness.
Psalm 119 says it was good to be afflicted so that you might learn God’s statutes. When people do not help you, when they do not give you what you expected, it can drive you deeper into the reality that God is greater than every hater, every obstacle, and every lack.
Falling down is not failure; staying down is. As Winston Churchill once put it, success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. When you choose to see resistance as confirmation that you are moving the right direction, even your hardships become fuel for rejoicing.
All of this connects very practically to how you order your life around the principle of First Fruits. If God is not first in your marriage, how can you expect your relationship to stand firm when life gets hard? If God is not first in how you raise your children, how will they carry forward the spiritual legacy that matters more than any material inheritance? If God is not first in your money, how will you resist the pull toward selfishness, materialism, and the hustle mindset that says life is dog-eat-dog and you have to get yours any way you can? You are not called to be a hustler; you are a child of God.
There is a pattern laid out for your success and well-being, but a pattern is more than one isolated act. It is an ordered arrangement of parts—your desire, your intentions, your persistence, your repentance, your giving, your worship, your decisions all woven together in a way that honors God. You cannot cling to willful sin and expect the pattern to work.
There must be repentance, a shutting of doors to sin, a release of unforgiveness. Worship, at its core, is building a life that displays God’s worth—honoring your spouse as God instructs, handling your finances as God directs, ordering your priorities so that God’s presence is not an afterthought but your highest value.
That is why Scripture emphasizes first things so clearly. The Bible speaks of first fruits and first things dozens of times. The tithe—the first tenth of your gross income—belongs to the Lord. First fruits offerings are another expression of the principle that all first belongs to God.
In Leviticus 23, God instructed His people that when they came into the land and reaped the harvest, they were to bring a sheaf of the first fruits to the priest. Proverbs 3:9–10 calls you to honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase so that your “barns” (or today, your accounts and resources) may be filled with plenty and your vats overflow. Romans 11:16 declares that if the firstfruit is holy, the whole lump is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. The first represents the total.
This is not about your salvation—Jesus settled that at the cross when you received Him. This is about whether you will live out the Word of God in such a way that you actually walk in the abundance, purpose, and destiny He intends, instead of being saved yet miserable, struggling, and unfulfilled.
When you give God the first of your day, the first of your month, the first of your increase—especially as you begin the year with prayer, fasting, and giving—you are applying the principle of first fruits. You are saying with your actions, “God, You are first in my time, first in my priorities, first in my finances, first in my decisions.” As you do, you position yourself to see Matthew 6:33 fulfilled in your life: as you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all these “other things” begin to be added.
This is why you are being invited at the beginning of the year not only to fast and pray but to be specific and intentional in your giving and believing. Write down what you are believing God for this year. Make clear, bold requests connected to clear, bold obedience.
What matters is that you are putting God first in a real, sacrificial, and faith-filled way. As you do, you can expect God not because you are great, but because His Word cannot fail. When you keep first things first through faith and obedience, His promises move from theory into lived provision.
At the very core, the first and greatest step for you is to make sure Jesus Christ is truly Lord and Savior in your life. If you sense you need a reset, if you are not sure that heaven would be your home if you died today, you can turn to God right now: “Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. Forgive me for all my sin. I receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.” When you pray that from your heart, you step into the family of God, and everything else about putting God first flows from that relationship.
From there, you can begin to build on the foundations of faith, learn the basics of walking with God, and invite Him into every area—your marriage, your children, your work, your finances, your dreams.
You do not have to journey alone; you can connect with this ministry, teachings, and events that equip you, encourage you, and surround you with others who are serious about living for God in this generation. Conferences, gatherings, and times of corporate worship and teaching can become catalysts for your growth, places where you are revived, informed about the cultural battles around faith and family, and strengthened to stand boldly for biblical truth and religious freedom.
This year can be unlike any other if you will embrace desire, live with intention, and refuse to let go in persistence while you put God first in everything. Trouble will come, but instead of being a sign that you are failing, it will become evidence that you are moving in the right direction. You can rejoice—even in opposition—because you know God is at work, His principles are in motion, and testimonies are already forming for the months ahead.
Paula
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