Bible verses about loving God first and foremost

Bible Verse of The Day – 10-9-26

by

2 Timothy 4:6 (LSB) 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

We often miss the depth of commitment in statements like this one that Paul made when writing to Timothy.

Christianity has become far too “casual” for many people.

Some try it on to see if it “fits”.

Others run to Jesus to “put out a fire” for them. And when the flames have been extinguished, He is left behind until the next fire begins to burn.

Others may wander in and out of their relationship with Him in a way that suits their preferences and their moods, diving in deep one week, and watching from afar a month or two later. And for no apparent reason other than convenience or simply due to fickle human nature.

But if we were to truly study and walk in the truth of God’s word, we would know that “following Jesus” calls for far more than a casual in-and-out relationship.

It requires a commitment that goes far beyond a Sunday church service and a Wednesday night Bible study.

It requires a faith that can withstand the tests and trials that come with everyday life. And beyond that, it demands a gritty faith that truly stands against the test of persecution that may even include being willing to give it all for Him.

Yes, that means being willing to do as the disciples did, dying for their faith.

Is it likely that you or I will be required to do this? No. It is not likely. But the question must still be answered in our hearts in a true and honest way.

This is the true litmus test for each of us. And it is a question that only we can answer.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 10-7-26

by

Job 1:21 (LSB) 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh.”

Job lost his workers.

He lost his livestock.

He lost all his material possessions.

And in addition to all that, he lost his children.

It all happened quickly, with no warning whatsoever.

And in the aftermath, Job spoke these words: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh.”

Blessed be the name of Yahweh.

He had lost everything, and as he sat and took in what had happened, he worshiped God.

There is an important question that we must ask ourselves as we consider what Job experienced and how he reacted.

Does our love, reverence, and obedience to God depend on how “well” our life is going?

Do we love Him more strongly when we are being immensely blessed?

Or can we truthfully say that, like Job, we would proclaim “blessed be the name of Yahweh” even when the world is falling apart around us?

When extreme trials hit, and they will hit, how will we react?

Our honest answer will tell us a lot about where our relationship with God really stands, and what it is built on.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 10-4-26 – Our One Goal

by

Please click to watch the videoGreetings in the wonderful name of Jesus! 

We hope you are walking more closely with God today than you ever have before 🙏🏻 

We have a new video for you today that we hope you enjoy and will benefit from.

In this new video, we teach about what our one biggest goal is (or should be) as a follower of Christ. 

The video is called Our One Goal. 

Please click here to watch the video now.

We love you all. 

Sincerely, 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443  

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 9-30-26

by

Psalm 18:1 (NLT) 1 I love you, Lord; you are my strength.

In our lives as followers of Christ, we have one goal; to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength.

Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV) 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

All other goals should take a back seat to these.

And it’s interesting that when Jesus walked the earth, He added to these, reinforcing their importance in ways that people could easily grasp.

In Matthew 22:37, He added “mind” to this command.

Matthew 22:37 (NKJV) 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Then, in Mark 12:30, they are all tied together; heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Mark 12:30 (LSB) 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

This makes it super easy to see and understand the great importance of loving God and putting Him first in everything about our lives.

Not second, third, or anywhere else on down the ladder.

FIRST.

Let this be our most sincere prayer and goal in all that we do; loving God first and foremost, above all else.

Amen 🙏🏻

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 3-4-26

by

Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NLT) 13 That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.

This verse is a perfect summary of what our relationship with God should be; loving God enough to reverently fear Him and obey Him—doing what He says is right.

While most of us tend to complicate our walk with God, the foundation of it all comes down to the statement made in the verse above.

Yes, each of us is unique. And our relationship with Him will be unique because of that. But the foundation it is built on should be what the Word of God tells us, and that never changes.

So, knowing this, how do we go about it?

It really isn’t complicated.

Jesus said it perfectly when confronted by the Pharisees. They asked Him, “what is the most important commandment?”.

He readily answered with this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

And that is it, spoken very succinctly by Jesus Himself, God with us.

So what will we do with our lives? What is important to us? What really matters to us in our day-to-day priorities?

Those are pretty sobering questions if we ponder them seriously.

Only we can answer that. Only we can make the choices that govern our lives.

And in the end, let us be found guilty of only one thing: running the race in a way that we may obtain the prize, finding our joy not in who we are, but in the One we pursue.

1 Corinthians 9:24 (NKJV) 24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

Amen 🙏🏻

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 2-20-26

by

Matthew 22:37 (NKJV) 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Of all the commands, this is the most important; to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

There is nothing above it. And this should be our priority every day that we live; putting God above all else.

As we were recently traveling, God dropped some questions into my spirit.

Let’s discuss them so we can learn and grow.

What is our walk with God built on?

It’s important for us to understand what the foundation is that’s supporting our relationship with God.

Is it built on routine or ritual?

Many times, our relationship with Him can fall into nothing more than a series of routines, habits, and rituals. We repeat the same behaviors daily, never stopping to ask ourselves why we’re doing what we do.

This leads to a dead relationship that is built only on rote, mechanical actions that involve only reflexive behavior, not our heart. There is no fruit in it.

Is our relationship built on what we’ve seen others do (mimicry)? Is it based only on what we have heard others tell us it should be?

If we’re not careful, we may tend to imitate what we have seen in the lives of other believers, mimicking their behavior. This often happens because we don’t spend the necessary time growing our own relationship. So, we simply imitate what we see in others.

Do we just fly by the seat of our pants, doing what we think is right?

If we fail to spend time in God’s word, learning of Him and maturing as a believer, we can wander aimlessly, having no firm footing and no direction. We lack understanding and wisdom that would be gained if we would only open His word and feed on it.

Our relationship with God is what we make it. It will grow to the extent that we want it to.

We must put forth the effort. We will see growth when we put in the work.

And in the end, it comes down to one factor; our heart.

Do we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, putting Him above all else, even when that means laying down our old habits, routines, and rituals?

Only we can answer that question.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 2-9-26

by

Mark 7:5 (LSB) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?”

As Jesus become more well-known, and the religious leaders of His day became more zealous in their efforts to discredit Him, they presented Him with many questions that they thought would cause Him to stumble in His answers and expose Himself as a false prophet or teacher.

The question above was one of the questions that they used to accuse Jesus of not properly educating His disciples.

What they failed to discern and prepare for was the ability of Jesus to know their hearts, and the fitting responses He so quickly fired back at them.

In this case, Jesus didn’t address the lack of hand-washing on the part of His disciples.

Instead, He scorched the religious leaders with their insistence on putting the useless traditions of man before the commandments of God.

Mark 7:6 (LSB) 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.

Jesus immediately rebuked them with the words of Isaiah, proclaiming their hypocrisy. For they honored God with their lips despite their hearts being far from Him.

And a short time later He explained to the crowd exactly what He meant.

Mark 7:14-15 (LSB) 14 And after He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

His point in this was that what defiles us (causes us to be dirty) is what comes out of our hearts, not what goes into our mouths.

But the larger emphasis was on the hypocrisy of the religious leaders’ failure to love God’s commandments and laws as much as they loved their traditions.

Interpreting this into New Testament lingo means loving God wholeheartedly, and putting Him FIRST, before our habits, traditions, routines, and rituals.

This is what God asks and expects of us. Let us gain understanding in this and apply it to our lives daily 🙏

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Bible Verse of The Day – 12-6-25

by

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Because we live in the world, it will take up much of our time if we don’t set the boundaries. Without those boundaries, the time we spend “trying to seek God” or being with Him will be next to nothing.

Seeking God and His righteousness first will bring a sense of stability and peace. Why? Because as we obey God with this verse, He promises us that all these things shall be added to us.

How do we seek Him? Through prayer, reading His word, and praise and worship.

Let’s talk about what happens when we spend time with God in prayer, in His word, and when we praise and worship Him.

It’s through prayer we can approach Him; He will give us guidance and provision as we cry out to Him.

Praying causes our faith to become stronger. It helps us to do things we never thought we could do as we learn through answered prayers how to trust Him more.

Praying will help us if we have anxiety. It actually causes worrying to subside because our faith grows as we spend time with Him.

Most importantly, prayer helps us build and strengthen our relationship with God.

Reading God’s word is just as crucial.

It will help us to grow spiritually, gain wisdom, and it provides us with comfort. These things strengthen us.

His word guides us in our daily lives, helping us to make right choices.

Reading God’s word also helps sharpen our discernment.

It brings peace and gives us much hope.

Praising and worshiping Him will draw us into His presence. And we will feel our burdens lifted as we surrender and we melt into His arms.

God is faithful to show up. And oh, what a difference it will make in our daily activities.

Call time out today. Seek after Him, and watch how things will change!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries 
49 N Lamplighters Walk 
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Get our mobile app here: 

Android: http://goo.gl/oQ6qa7 

Apple: http://apple.co/2lZdgYy

Bible Verse of The Day – 7-16-25

by

Psalm 102:25-27 (LSB) 25 Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. 26 Even they will perish, but You will remain; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. 27 But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.

Our lives are temporary.

The earth is temporary.

The heavens are temporary.

Everything we pursue and chase after while we are here is temporary.

What is not temporary?

God.

God is eternal. He always has been, He is now, and He will be forevermore.

Understanding this changes our perspective. It rearranges our priorities.

It shows us where our energy and efforts should be directed. And it is not on the things of this world.

So many times, we lose sight of the fact that our life is but a moment; a mere flicker that is momentary.

Does all of this seem morbid?

It isn’t. It is factual. And it should grab our attention. It should jar us awake us if we are serious about our walk with God; our eternity.

Where our time, attention, and money are spent shows us where our heart is. It reveals our heart, and shows us our priorities.

Let us love God more. Let us learn of Him and seek Him daily, drawing closer to Him with each day that passes.

This is not cliche’. It is truth that we must understand and embrace.

We love you all.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Get our mobile app here: 

Android: http://goo.gl/oQ6qa7 

Apple: http://apple.co/2lZdgYy

Bible Verse of The Day – 7-9-25

by

1 Samuel 15:22 (LSB 22 And Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Happy Wednesday!

Today we’d like to continue with a topic that we discussed on Monday; obeying God.

As we also mentioned on Monday, everything about our lives flows from the heart; our thoughts, our speech, and our actions.

So, whether we obey God or not also stems from the condition of our heart.

A hard, angry, or bitter heart is unlikely to conform to God’s will, and more apt to follow our own will. Things such as anger and similar emotions almost always lead to rebellion.

Pride will also cause us to rebel, preferring ourselves over others.

And a higher opinion of view of ourselves will also cause us to put others lower on our list of priorities than we place ourselves.

This is why it is so important that we humble ourselves before God.

Humility will make us more pliable in God’s hands, causing us to conform to what He wants, instead of what we want.

And as we remain humble, the Holy Spirit will begin to transform us, so that our desires heed to God’s will, and we begin to honor His desires instead of our own.

We transition from selfish to selfless.

This is typically a gradual progression that can take years to happen. Realistically, it is a lifelong process that has seasons of growth spurts as we walk through various trials and situations that cause us to put our roots down deeper in Him.

And what is at the root of our obedience? What causes us to begin putting ourselves second, and Him first?

Our love for God.

Our love for Him grows as we mature and purposely make the effort to learn of Him.

And when that love is in full bloom, the only thing that will fill our heart and make it feel complete is more time spent with Him, studying His word, communing with Him, and drawing ever nearer to Him.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Get our mobile app here: 

Android: http://goo.gl/oQ6qa7 

Apple: http://apple.co/2lZdgYy

Bible Verse of The Day – 10-18-24

by

2 Kings 22:11 (NKJV) 11 Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes.

Our sincerity in our walk with God is more important than we know.

And if we look at it closely, we will understand that it revolves around what is in our heart.

In the verse above, king Josiah had realized that the nation of Judah had neglected God and their relationship with Him.

They had abandoned Him.

It happened by no fault of their own. The generations preceding them had slowly left God behind, trading Him for idols and false gods.

But when Josiah discovered the truth about their situation, he immediately tore his clothing as was the Jewish custom when something terrible had happened.

More importantly, though, he took steps to rectify the situation and get the people of Judah back on track.

So it should be for us.

Our walk with God should be the highest priority in our life. Everything else must come after.

And when we see that we have lapsed somewhere, fixing it must be what we focus on.

As with Josiah, the state of our heart must be one that is soft and pliable; moldable by God.

Life, and the things we encounter, can cause our hearts to become hard and callous. A heart in this condition does not easily respond to God’s promptings or the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The best remedy for this is for us to recognize our condition and to lay ourselves repentantly at the feet of Jesus, asking Him to teach us His ways.

And He will willingly do that for each of us, no questions asked.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

If you know someone who will enjoy this or be encouraged by it, please feel free to share it with them!

To have the Bible Verse of The Day delivered to your inbox each day, please Click Here and then enter your email address in the box near the upper left corner of the page. 

Please consider making a Donation.

Get our mobile app here: 

Android: http://goo.gl/oQ6qa7 

Apple: http://apple.co/2lZdgYy