About the book
365 Ways to Put Jesus First
Athletes and actors, models and musicians, pastors and politicians … many have stepped forward, looked in the camera, and proclaimed, “I am second.” But most in the I Am Second movement are not celebrities. They are ordinary people—and they’ve come to the simple realization that when God comes first in their lives, everything makes sense.
But living second is not easy. It takes grit and humility, submission to God’s will, a willingness to listen and serve, an openness to God’s healing and call.
Live Second is a daily guide to help you. With 365 readings, prayers, actions steps, and an invitation to join other Christ-followers online, what you hold in your hands is a tool built with truth, scripture, and a sure path to put Jesus first every day.
The Christian life is not meant to be easy, just worth it. Live Second is exactly what you need as you become the new, inspired, God-honoring creation he made you to be.
My Assignment
To participate to this special blogging campaign I was asked to select 4 readings within session 2 of the book and to write four blog posts during the launch week about my spiritual journey as I read and interacted with the Live Second book.
Reading #1 – OWNERSHIP (Page 53 of the book)
Luke 20:10 is highlighted at the top of the page and the scripture reading is about the story of the evil farmers which were supposed to care for the vineyard but became greedy about it and wanted to keep it for themselves instead of giving back to the owner.
Bottom line the lesson behind this scripture, the text of the devotion and the prayer is to become wise with our money because ultimately it all belongs to God. Whether your life goes well or is having roadblocks for some reasons, He is in control. It’s not easy to change your way of thinking. Few years ago, we were not thinking like that completely but since then we have seen God at work in our life and know that He cares for us. You see my husband and I own a consulting business and we have learning to trust God in every way for providing. Nowadays due to change within the procurement ways of doing things, being a contractor is more difficult than it used to be. Still, God is there. Providing for our needs in ways we don’t expect and imagine. On the other side of things, we have decided a couple of years ago to tighten our expenses in order to pay off our debt. We are almost done doing so – we learned to be wise with our money, to pray and consider big purchases which often are delayed, to keep an eye on sales if needed be, and much more.
Everything we own is His. Our life, our house, our children, our business. When we started having children it was a big deal because we have been told that it was almost impossible for us to have some. Now four kids later, we know that they are gifts from Him hence the meaning of their second name “Gift of God”. We homeschool them and see that their faith has a strong foundation. We are just managers for now in their life – ultimately they are His. We are asked to provided guidance and teaching for them to become His messengers in the world eventually.
We also think like this for our finances. We have learned the hard way and now we see the importance to think of our money as being completely His – not just the 10% of our finances. EVERYTHING – 100% of it. Is it easy to think like this? No. As I said, we learned the hard way. But it makes more sense as He is the one who opens doors of opportunities in our life. And honestly because of this we see God’s blessings in our life even much more present than before. The best way to manage your things is to switch your thinking to MY things into something more like His things. Plain and simple.
Want to read more about people who have decided to make Jesus first? Get I am Second and Live Second. You won’t be disappointed.
Both books are available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.
The books are also available on the Kindle.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Doug Bender for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.
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