Put God first

1 Kings 11:1-3 (NLT)
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. 2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, ‘You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.’ Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.

Solomon out of his love for God had built a temple dedicated to God. Now in Solomon’s old age his attention had turned from his love of God to his love of women. Solomon began to build shines for his wives dedicated to their foreign Gods. Solomon began to follow the practices of his wives worshiping gods other than the true God. God had warned Solomon what would happen, but Solomon still allowed his love of women to turn his heart away from God to follow the practices of his wives.

Romans 8:38-39 tells us, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God loves us and there is nothing that can get in the way of His love for us. Yet we allow things of this world to get in the way of our love for God. Solomon allowed his love for women to separate him from God. The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy said it is our “love” of money that is the root of all evil. When our attention is turned to loving something more that we love God we lose sight of God’s purpose for us. In the book of Revelation Jesus says to the church of Ephesus, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love”, for even while they did good deeds their affection for Christ and God had grown cool. Put your love for God first and don’t let your heart grown cool in your love for Him.