A Life or Death Matter

Matthew 6:33 says to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and THEN all these things will be added unto you.
In other words, when we put God first everything else falls into place.  I can't think of anything more important in living a victorious Christian life than putting God first.
Daily time with God is essential.
Do you ever wonder why you are having a hard time getting answered prayer or walking in peace, love, and joy?  Do you wonder why you are constantly battling?  There is a rest for the people of God and this rest is found in His presence.
We don't spend time with God to "earn" his blessings or our salvation or anything else.  We spend time with God to be shaped into His image.  We spend time with God to be healed, restored, renewed, empowered.  We spend time with God because we love Him and we want to be with Him.
All our answers are found in His presence.  All of them.  All of them.  Everything that pertains to life and Godliness is found in Him.
In John chapter 15 Jesus describes how He is the vine and we are the branches.  In order to live, in order to produce fruit, we must remain in the vine!  Apart from Him we can do no good works!
I've always been a "need to know exactly "how" to do it" kind of person.  When I am learning the things of God, I always want to know exactly how to do it.  For example, people would say, "you must remain in the vine."  Ok, I would think, HOW do you remain in the vine?  I like concrete specific examples (thanks to my high school English teacher).
We remain in the vine by spending time with God everyday, by making time with Him our priority.  We don't schedule our time with God around our day, we schedule our day around our time with God.
Throughout the day, we remain in the vine by continually being aware of His presence.  We meditate scripture, we listen to worship music, we walk in joy and love.  The Bible says that when we walk in love, we are walking in Him!
Do I ever mess up?  Yes!  I get distracted, I lose my way sometimes.  When I notice things are not right in my heart, I realize, I've been neglecting my FIRST priority and God so graciously and lovingly reminds me to come back to Him, to put Him first once again.
If there is any lesson I've learned of life or death importance, it is this one.  Where there is God, there is life!  Time with God is a life or death matter... literally!