God is determined to dwell with us. In the Garden, in Eden, He walked with mankind in the cool of the day. But man rejected Him and separation was the result. God brought into being a nation, and in their midst He tabernacled with them. Eventually they built a temple and the glory of God filled it and rested there in the midst of His people. But they insisted on sin, idolatry and rebellion, and separation was required; His glory departed (Ezekiel 10). If God is to live with His people, something must be done in His people, because we are such sinners and fallen from His glory.

In Matthew 4, when Jesus began His ministry, He preached a message of "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." There was a great urgency to His words, words that would bring great regret if they were ignored. Seeing Peter and Andrew...

I came across this C.S. Lewis quote that I thought might encourage you about priorities. "When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards that state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased."