Tag: Bible verses about loving God first and foremost

Bible Verse of The Day – 9-29-21

1 Kings 14:7-8 (NKJV) 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes;

There are many, many instances of us being told in God’s word how important it is to follow God’s laws, decrees and commands.

Let’s talk about that.

In its barest form, it would appear that God is simply asking us to strictly follow a set of rules and laws.

But if we look at the heart of this, it goes much deeper.

In reality, God is urging us (appealing to us) to give Him our hearts.

You see, God isn’t really concerned with a set of laws. Laws don’t change hearts or make us righteous. They just give us guidelines.

Simply following a set of guidelines will only create rituals and traditions. That is not what God wants.

If we look at the latter part of the verse above, God tells Jeroboam that David followed Him with all his heart.

That is what God wants; our whole heart.

Because David followed God with his whole heart, God honored him down through the generations.

There are powerful lessons for us to learn from this.

So, despite our faults & failures, let’s be sure to keep this at the forefront of everything we do; to follow God with all our heart.

And as we do this, God will also honor us, and our lives will be blessed because of it.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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Bible Verse of The Day – 5-25-21

2 Kings 10:28-31 (NKJV) 28 Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. 29 However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan. 30 And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” 31 But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin.

You see, Jehu did a lot of good things as King. He destroyed Baal. That was huge!

And because of that, God gave his sons the throne for four (4) generations.

However, what Jehu did was not enough for God. He wanted Jehu’s whole heart.

You see, Jehu did what was right in God’s sight. But zeal with an undevoted heart is not equal to having a heart after God.

God wants us all to Himself.

Maybe we are saying “,well, I have dedicated my life to Him already, but I’m not as close to Him as I would like. And I feel Him tugging on me to come closer, to spend more time, and let go of even more things. But can I and will I do this? I don’t know if I have it in me.”

It can be hard for our minds to grasp that God, Who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, wants us closer.

We know we are sinners, saved only by grace. We are always messing up one way or another, constantly trying to just get through each day.

Why would He want all of us, with our faults and shortcomings, when He can have everything else?

If all of creation worships Him, why does He want all of me-too?

Well, the answer is given clearly in His word. He simply does! He wants all of you and all of me to love Him more than anything. Exodus 34:13 (NKJV) He is a jealous God.

Would we commit our whole heart to Him today and live out each day for Him the best we can?

That’s really all He asks, to keep trying and to win this race that is before us, loving Him with our whole heart.

Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV) 1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…

Jehu, with all his zeal, got the throne for his sons for four (4) generations. But, wouldn’t we rather hear God say, “well done good and faithful servant.; you loved Me to the end with all of your heart.”?

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.

What will it be?

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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

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Bible Verse of The Day – 5-3-21

Matthew 15:8-9 (NKJV) 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Lip service, in any form, is a terrible thing.

Our mouth says one thing, but our heart and our actions do another.

It should be our desire to draw so close to God that we never have to worry about lip service in our walk with Him.

Our heart will know when we are serving God only with our words. Because, in reality, this is not serving God at all. It is merely going through the motions.

Let us push aside all distractions, all idols and all selfish ambition in our effort to know Him more intimately.

We need not depend on our heart to lead us in this. Instead, we need to look directly to Him, leaning solely on His precious Spirit for guidance, discernment and understanding.

We cannot count on our intellect. We can have volumes of knowledge, and yet still not know God.

We cannot rely on others. Yes, others can give us guidance. But this walk with God is ours to carry out and navigate, as we do so “with fear and trembling”.

Philippians 2:12 (NKJV) 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

This is not meant to be scary or solemn. It is a heartfelt exhortation, written in love, to encourage you to give God 100% of who you are. We are, after all, His creations.

It is Him who breathed life into our lungs and gave our heart the beat that keeps us breathing.

Let us not serve Him only with our lips, but with every fiber of our being, making Him our number one priority until the moment that we take our very last breath.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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

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Bible Verse of The Day – 5-30-20

Matthew 22:37-39 (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.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Loving God is the key to follow and obeying His commandments. It is the very thing that will help us put our self aside and be able to love Him and our neighbor as He has asked us to.

If we don’t have such a love for God first, it’s impossible to love the way He has commanded us. It’s funny, loving God can move us toward living for Him, but yet we fight it.

We may ask, “why do we fight it?”

We fight usually because we care about ourselves and how we feel more than anything else. And how we feel is usually based on if we are happy about who we’ve become, how much we have and our appearance. Those are 3 big issues and can keep us from loving God and others the way we should.

We feel like if we are not happy with who we are, how can we truly love anyone? In this scripture, is there anything where it says, we have to love ourselves? No, it says to love God with basically everything and what is left is use toward loving our neighbor. Nothing is mention about having to love our self.

What God is showing us is the importance of our walk in this life with Him, is that our love should be directed and poured out for Him and others.

We don’t have to worry about loving ourselves, because His love for us is more than enough. All we need to know, to understand and believe is the love which He has for us and then share it. Amen.

1 John 4:16 (NKJV) 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

You my friend are loved more than you know.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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

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Bible Verse of The Day – 2-18-20

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.

That’s a lot of LOVE!

How many know that this doesn’t happen overnight? In fact, It doesn’t happen in a week or a month. It doesn’t even happen in a year. It takes time to learn such a love.

That’s right.

You see, when we give our life to Christ, we do it in faith. And from that day forward, we begin to take steps in developing such a love. It takes time.

So, we shouldn’t think there is something wrong with us if for some reason we are not there yet. We just need to keep moving towards it.

How?

By obeying. By listening and following. By saying, “no”, at times to things we may enjoy doing. By allowing ourselves to be corrected and chastened at times by the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 12:6 (NKJV) 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

These are steps toward receiving the life God has for us and developing the love for Him that he desires us to have.

Once we begin walking in this love, we will never want to go back to the way we once were.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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

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Bible Verse of the Day – 9-1-19 – Where is God?

Please click to watch the video now.Greetings in the name of Jesus! 

Where is God? 

That’s the question we ask and discuss in today’s video. 

In this video, we talk about where God is in our lives, in our list of priorities, so to speak. We discuss how our love for God impacts everything about our lives each and every day. 

We hope you will take a few minutes and give it a watch. 

Please click here to watch the video now. 

Be blessed in Him. 

Sincerely, 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808 

401-315-0902

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

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Bible Verse of The Day – 3-5-19

Matthew 22:37-39 (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.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Dear God, help us to love You in such a way, with everything in us. And once we have learned that, help us to do the next thing and love our neighbor as our self. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen

To love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and then love our neighbor as our self, can we all agree that change has to happen? His Spirit has to be alive in us. And we have to be disciplined to say no to our fleshly desires.

The flesh can be very strong-willed, even in a believer. It has its way of wanting to do what it wants.

If we are tired and unhealthy, we are not up for the battle. We will be more apt to give into it, even when we know it’s wrong.

The flesh will begin to change when we stay close to God, through prayer and reading His word. It will also help if we are well-rested and keeping ourselves physically healthy. These few things will all contribute to being alert and strong in our spirit man.

If we can be consistent in these things, it will make a huge difference in keeping our hearts close and in love with God.

When our heart changes, our mind and soul will follow suit and we will walk in this love on a regular basis.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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. 

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Bible Verse of The Day – 6-19-18

Mark 12:30 (NKJV) 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.

This commandment comes first for a very good reason. If we can love God like this, nothing can stop us from being in His will.

Our heart, soul, mind, strength; These are the very parts of us that help us to conquer and make right decisions. Loving God with all our strength will help us to be able to physically and mentally take the steps He’s ordering for us.

If we can learn to love Him in such a way, this love will bless our hearts, our lives, and our whole beings. We will walk daily in His will and His blessings for us.

A good test for us to try is to ask ourselves where we are right now in our walk with Him. Can we say that we are loving Him this way? If not, don’t give up or get discouraged. Look at what we are doing and where the changes need to come. Ask God to help us make the adjustments.

Obedience comes through love. So we need to make sure we love Him more than the activities we participate in. Love Him more than wealth, more than work, more then titles, alcohol, drugs, spending money, traveling, and love Him more than we love ourselves and others. Our love for Him must be first.

If we love Him more, we will put Him first. And His commandments will not be burdensome.

1 John 5:3 (NKJV) 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

LOVE activates obedience.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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. 

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Click the player below listen to today’s devotional.

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Bible Verse of The Day – 3-23-18

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. 

Want to know the secret to living a life of fulfillment? 

Want to know what it means to be successful? 

How about learning how to love others, even when they don’t love you back? 

Want to know how to be blessed in all things? 

There are many other things that could be listed here that most of us desire or think are important when it comes to the quality of our lives. 

Regardless what it might be that we desire, none of it will matter until we get this one thing right; love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 

This might seem like an over-simplification. And it might be when looked at from certain viewpoints. 

But, the reality is that if we put God first in everything, and love Him with all our heart, soul and mind, most of the rest of our lives will fall into place. And even if we aren’t overflowing with material blessings, we will love our life because it will be a life built on honoring and loving God. 

And nothing gets any better than that. 

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie 

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808 

401-315-0902

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. 

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Click the player below listen to today’s devotional.

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Bible Verse of The Day – 7-28-17

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.’

God wants our whole heart. He desires us to walk closely with Him every minute of every day.

As human beings, we sometimes have a hard time with this. We get pulled on from so many different directions. We end up with our affections divided between so many things and our time spent scattered in many ways. Before we know it, God is only a tiny little slice of our lives.

One of the most important things we can learn as followers of Christ is that He comes first, before anyone and anything else. It’s His heart’s desire. It’s the reason He created us; to worship Him and walk close to Him.

There is a never-ending list of things we can put before God. Money, careers, family, relationships, etc., etc. It’s different for each of us.

But it doesn’t matter what it might be. If it pulls us away from God and causes our relationship with Him to falter or if it keeps us from growing closer to Him, then we need to take a serious look at it and consider making some changes.

God does not force us to love Him. It’s not in His nature to do so. He has given us the option; love Him or not. But if we do love Him, He wants us to do it of our own free will and give it 100%.

It’s amazing how our lives are transformed when we put Him first and give Him 100%. Our heart changes. Our outlook on life changes. Our attitude changes. We become more compassionate. We forgive more easily. We genuinely care about others. We put things aside that used to mean a lot to us.

And we do it all willingly. Why? Because our love for God overshadows everything else in life. And when our love for God reaches that point, there is nothing that can come between us and Him.

Nothing.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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.

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Bible Verse of The Day – 3-29-17

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

There are lots of things we can love.

Our spouse, fiance, career, children, church, ministry, etc. And all of these are good things that we should love.

But sometimes our love for something can become a weakness if we don’t keep our priorities straight.

Sometimes we can love things that aren’t so good. Maybe things like alcohol, lust, drugs, anger, etc. And loving these kinds of things can destroy us, physically, emotionally and spiritually if we don’t see them for what they are and eliminate them.

Anything that we love, if it comes before our love for God, can rise up and hurt us at some point in our lives.

Yes, even our love for our spouse, our children, our work or our “ministry” can hurt us.

If we love alcohol, it can and will destroy us. If we love lust, it can and will destroy us. If we love any kind of sin, it will ultimately rise up and destroy us if we don’t surrender it to God and let Him deliver us from it.

But even our love for our spouse or our children can damage us badly, or even destroy us, if we don’t put it in its proper place in our lives.

We always need to love God first. He needs to take precedence over absolutely everything else in our lives. He needs to come first. Everything and everybody else needs to come after God.

When we put anything else before God, we are always setting ourselves up to be hurt or to fail. Because when something is higher on our list of priorities than God is, that thing will ultimately hurt us in one way or another.

It is so very important that we keep our priorities in order and keep God where He belongs, at the top of that list!

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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.

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