In my head there is this pyramid of ideas, with the biggest, coolest ones like God at the top, and super tiny ones like brush your teeth at the bottom. People, in their daily lives, can use this fact pyramid to make decisions in one of two ways: top-down processing or bottom-up processing.
I think the first one is infinitely better.
Top-down processing starts from a few big ideas at the top and looks at many common sense actions that come (descend) from those facts. An example of top-down processing: God is amazing - therefore go spread the gospel, seek him in his word, love your spiritual brothers and sisters...etc. This is one of the cool things about God: when we're most satisfied in him, theology kind of fades away and we do things like evangelism and stuff because we want to, not for any logical reasons.
Bottom up processing makes a small number of decisions using a large base of facts. This requires a lot of thought and calculation. Bottom-up processing would be like this: God told us to go preach, and it would be nice to have other Christians around, so even though telling people about Christ feels kind of awkward - therefore I should go and preach.
It requires a lot less brain work and you're less prone to error when you use top-down decision making. Strike first at the big ideas, figures those out, take them deep into your heart, and many things will follow easily after. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matt 6:33
P.S The ideas at the top of the pyramid, being larger, are also more emotional.
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