When Things Get Out of Sync

A little while I saw my sister standing and staring at the washing machine looking very confused. I went in and asked what was wrong and she said that it was stuck. I looked and the door was locked, and the lights were on indicating that it was both draining and spinning, yet the machine had never even filled up with water yet. We called the maintenance man here at the resort and he came up and looked at it and said that the machine had gotten out of sync and said that it must be reset so that it knew to do thing in the right order. It took him all of 5 minutes to pull a cover off pull a part out and reset it and put it back together. Once he did that, the machine was back to running the way it is supposed to. As he left, the wheels in my mind started turning. I got to thinking about how many times we get things out of sync in our lives... meaning we have our priorities wrong. As a follower of Christ, it should be a no brainer that we are to put God first. Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself." That sounds pretty basic and almost every Christian will tell you that they follow this. But do they? If you love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, then why is it that so many things come before attending worship? Why is it that we find it easy to spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on more "stuff" that will be cast aside in a very short time and most likely end up in the trash or a yard sale, but are hesitant to giving God the tithe and offering? Isn't it amazing that we think nothing of spending more money for one meal out with the family than what we give to God in a week... or month?  If that is happening in your life... then things are out of sync. Things are not running right... and we find disruptions, fights, discord, stress, anxiety, frustrations building in our homes and lives and we can't figure out what is wrong. 
It's really simple... our priorities have shifted and we have put God at the bottom of the list. When this happens, we disqualify ourselves from the blessing that God has promised in His Word.  Put God back at the top of the list and just watch how quickly all the other things begin to fall in place. That's not the manipulating words of a preacher as many will squawk. No, those are the words of Jesus. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."  Read that passage in Matthew chapter six and see what "things" Jesus is referring to!  If life is stuck, broken or running poorly... maybe it's because things are "out of sync."