Psalm 127:1 “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”

DAILY READING: • Mark 12:28-44; 1 Kings 4-5; Hosea 7:3-16

As a seven-year-old, David Boudia watched his first Olympic Games in Atlanta 1996, and dreamt of competing on the world stage. By age eleven, David Boudia’s ambitions began to take shape as he worked towards becoming a top athlete.
However, he was driven by superficial goals of fame, riches and notoriety. In 2008, at age 19, he qualified for the Olympics in Beijing. He trained obsessively and wholeheartedly, with the hope of winning a gold medal in his first Olympics.
During the event, he failed miserably, finishing in the 10th position. He did not win a single medal. Deeply disappointed, he felt he had let his country down and was an utter failure.

After the Olympics, he returned to college, and began a battle with depression. He tried to cover up by pursuing a lifestyle of partying. Outwardly, to everyone else, it seemed as if he had it all, but inside him life began to make less and less sense, until he began contemplating suicide.
One Saturday in 2010, it all came to a breaking point and in desperation he reached out to his coach, Adam Soldati who was a Christian. Adam introduced him to Jesus, and from that moment David Boudia’s life turned around.

As he began to seek God earnestly, his priorities changed. With his new understanding, he began to see diving as a means to bring glory to God rather than for promoting himself.
In 2012, he once again made the Olympic team. This time, however, things were different. He was no longer desperately seeking to win a gold medal. He went to the London Olympics, seeking to honor the Lord, and God also honored him in return by enabling him to win a gold medal and a bronze medal.

Mathew 6:33 said, “Seek ye first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, and every other thing shall be added unto you”.

Indeed when your focus is bringing glory to God, you will never end up in shame.
Pursuing after the heart of God is the secret card for experiencing success in life. Truly, we cannot make a mark in life until God has first put His mark on us. And we will have no effect until He has first affected us.

When we seek God and His kingdom, good things run after us. Indeed what you seek after, determines what seeks after you. And putting God first in all our affairs causes success to come after us. God is not ‘a’ factor for our success, God is ‘the’ factor for our success. Indeed, all the labour of man is futility without God’s input.

Psalm 127:1 says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”

We can never impact our world until God has first impacted us. God is the maker of men’s destinies, and it is only through following Him that we become made in life.

When you put God first, you will never end up as last. And when you advance His kingdom, you’ll never end up at the back. Mighty men are made by the Almighty God. He is the Most High God, and all who are joined to Him end up in the high places of life.

Therefore to see the wonders of God this year, let us be encouraged to give God first place in everything. Certainly, when you give God your best, He’ll take care of the rest.

PRAYER: Father, I thank You for the grace to always seek You first in everything. Truly, without You, I can do nothing. Thank You Lord for perfecting all that concerns me and causing me to see Your wonders this year in Jesus’ Name.

QUOTE: When God is on your side, anything is possible. – WORDBITE 201