What comes first with God?

A friend of mine shared a blog post on Facebook titled: For Years I Pleaded with God to Make Me Straight, So Why Did My Prayers Go Unanswered?

This blog post is about way more than homosexuality. It is about our hearts. It is about getting our hearts right and being in relationship with God. This is what must come first, before anything else in our lives will start to turn around. If we are living in sin, or struggling with sin; if we are unhappy because what we WANT to do goes against what the Bible tells us to do (if we want to have sex before marriage, if we want to be in a gay relationship, if we want to skip praying for others in favor of everything else that seems more fun, if we want out of our marriage to find a better marriage, etc.) then we need to look at our true relationship with God and what we are giving TO God before we can question why He is not answering our prayers. God does answer prayers, but He expects us to give up EVERYTHING to Him as well. If you are praying for things to change while still living a sinful life, the consequences and results are on you, not God.  It is one thing to stumble and sin (which we ALL do), it is quite another to keep commiting the same sins over and over.  Sex out of wedlock and living in a gay relationship are continuous ongoing sin that you cannot just apologize for and call it good, you must CHANGE your life and STOP the sin.

Galatians 2:20- I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Luke 9:23- And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

1 Peter 4:1-2 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

It took me almost 41 years to get this stuff through my thick skull.  It would be such a great gift if you didn't have to suffer that long.