Knowing Him Daily

04.March.2026

If you have ever flown, you have heard the flight attendant say it before the plane ever leaves the ground. In the event of a loss of cabin pressure, put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others. Every single time, without fail, they say it. And every single time, most of us nod politely and think yes, yes, I know, while privately assuming we would absolutely help everyone else first, especially a child.   If you have been around this blog for any length of time, you know this is not the first time this idea has shown up here. And that is not an accident. When God keeps circling back to something, it is worth circling back to. 

We would not, and spiritually speaking, many of us have been trying to do exactly that for years.

You cannot pour out what you have not first taken in. It is not complicated, but it is convicting. And it is the reason so many believers are running on empty while wondering why they have nothing left to give.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” 
Matthew 6:33, NKJV

First. Not eventually. Not when the kids are grown, the schedule clears and life finally slows down, which it won’t. First. Before the to-do list. Before the phone. Before the demands of the day get their hands on you and pull you in seventeen directions before you have even had coffee. Seeking Him first is not a spiritual discipline for the super-committed. It is the instruction Jesus gave to everyone who wants to walk in the fullness of what He promised.

David understood this. Long before he was a king, long before the victories and the failures and everything in between, he wrote: “You, God, are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my whole being longs for You, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1, NKJV That is not what someone obligated says. That is what someone who has tasted the presence of God and cannot imagine going a day without it. That is what the oxygen mask does, once you have breathed it in, you know the difference between that and running on fumes.

Here is the part that nobody talks about enough. Putting the mask on first is not selfish. It is not navel-gazing dressed up in spiritual language. It is stewardship. You are responsible for the condition of the vessel God chose to work through, and that vessel is you. A depleted, spiritually dry, emotionally exhausted version of you is not more useful to the Kingdom because you sacrificed your own filling. It is just empty.

Jesus modeled this so clearly it is impossible to miss if you are looking for it. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” Mark 1:35, NKJV The Son of God. Fully divine, fully human, carrying the weight of the entire redemption of mankind on His shoulders, and He got up before everyone else to be alone with the Father. If Jesus needed that, what makes us think we don’t?

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV A worker who does not need to be ashamed. That word diligent means intentional effort. It means you planned for it. It means you protected it. Your time with God is not what gets the leftover minutes at the end of a long day, it is what gets the first and the best, because everything else flows from it.

Think about the people in your life who need you. Really need you. The ones you are believing God to reach, to help, to serve, to love well. Now think about what it costs them when you show up empty. The most loving thing you can do for every single person God has placed in your path is to make sure you are full before you get there.

So today the challenge is this: block thirty minutes. Not five, not ten, thirty. Put it in your calendar like the appointment it is, because that is exactly what it is. No interruptions, no multitasking, no background noise. Just you and Him. Let Him fill you back up. Let Him speak. Let Him tend to the vessel before the vessel goes back out into the world.

The people He is sending you to need a full tank. And so do you.

And do not for one second think that only applies to the big moments. It is the neighbor you take homemade cookies to for no reason other than love. It is the person from your house of worship you noticed was missing one Sunday, so you picked up the phone and called. It is the stranger in the checkout line who needed your smile because it was the only bright thing in their entire day and they were not going to tell you that. Those moments are not small. They are not less than. They are God’s hand showing up through you in the margins of ordinary life, and they require the same full tank as anything else He asks of you. You cannot give what you do not have. So fill up. Every single day. Without apology.

Father, forgive me for the times I tried to give what I didn’t have, and for the times I let everything else come before You. Today I choose to put the mask on first. Fill me, speak to me, tend to what only You can tend to. I want to show up full to every place You send me. 

In Jesus’ name, 
Amen

Make today count and see you tomorrow.