Priorities

I’ve been thinking about life priorities lately and thought I would share at least what I think the top 5 priorities should be in all of our lives:

1. God
2. Spouse
3. Children
4. Job
5. Ministry

Starting at the top, priority #1 is God and our walk with God. God should be first in our lives always. He is the creator of all things and His commandments are clear. We are to love Him with all of our heart, mind and soul. No other person, place or thing is to come before God. If you place something before God, that is considered an idol and you are an in idolatry. He wants to be first in your life and He wants to walk with you daily. Not just when you think you need Him; but daily 24/7.

Priority #2 is your spouse. Your spouse completes you and you complete them. It is written in the Bible that you leave your parents and you become one flesh; meaning that together you are complete in God. If you are at odds with your spouse or you are not putting your spouse right after God; then you’re probably at odds with what God wants in your life. Marriage is a beautiful blessing given by our Creator but it requires each partner to be focused on serving the other as we would serve God.

Priority #3 is your children. If you have children your job is to raise them right in the Lord. How do you raise them right? Start with getting things right in the first two priorities. If you have a good relationship with God and a good relationship with your spouse raising your children will be much easier. In 1 Timothy 3:4 Paul says “He must mange his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.” This verse is Paul describing an overseer in the church; but we are all called to be part of the church body and be examples to those around us.

Priority #4 is your job. Unfortunately we live in times where we need to make money to provide for our families. If we are not providing for our families then things will not be good with our spouse or our children and to be honest God. We are to be God honoring is all that we do; even if we do not like what we do. God put you into a job and it’s your job to do that job with gladness of heart as unto God; until He puts you into another job somewhere else.

Priority #5 is ministry. This is where we volunteer and help God’s people. Don’t confuse this with #1 above. Priority #1 is about your personal walk with God; you reading the Word, journaling, praying and listening to God. Ministry is serving others. But this cannot come at the expense of your spouse, children or job. We are to be good stewards over everything the Lord gives us and I don’t want to stand in front of Him at the end trying to balance ministry with a failed marriage and family.

If you are keeping these priorities you probably won’t have much time left over. But if we keep these five priorities God will bless us with much more.

I Need a Savior

When I woke up the other day the first words through my mind that made sense were "I need a Savior". This isn't the first time I've woke to these words. I know they are from a song, but I can't really remember the rest of the song...but these words have stuck with me.

But it's so true. I do need a Savior. Why? Because without a Savior I am lost, I'm just a man and I make mistakes, I need a Savior if I'm going to get out of this physical life the right way. So what does having a Savior give me? Eternal life, relationship with the Father, forgiveness of my sins, a part in the larger story, love, mercy, grace, kindness, direction and on and on.

As I look at that list I realize that I don't just need a Savior, I want a Savior. I want those things in my life. You see we all need a Savior. The problem is that we all don't want a Savior.

Does God want us to follow Him or does he need us to follow Him? He wants us to follow Him. He is the God of the universe, He doesn't need anything. But He wants us because He loves us.

So the question isn't do you need a Savior? We know the answer to that...The question is do you want a Savior? Because the Savior wants YOU!

Rough Couple Weeks

It's been a rough couple weeks for me spiritually. So busy and so tired that I haven't carved out my normal time for God through prayer or reading the Word. I can really tell the difference as my attitude the last few days has gone down hill.

I like to look for analogies in different things and noticed one in my life the last couple weekends. Each weekend (mainly on Saturday) I'd get up have breakfast with the family and then we would be off on our Saturday errands (shopping mostly). Part way through the day I would become very thirsty (realizing I haven't had any water all day), of course it would be while driving or in a store where there is no good source to quench the thirst. It would be all I could think about, dominating me and my thoughts...then we would get home, unload the groceries or whatever and before I knew it I hadn't thought about my thirst and we are pulling away from the house and I'm still thirsty. I didn't think once about it when it was convenient to get a nice cool drink of water.

I think for many of us this is how our relationship with God goes. When things are going on and we start to feel stressed about the problems in our lives we start to think about Him and ask Him for help. He is all we can think about for a bit; then we get distracted and we don't think about Him for a while...or until we realize we are thirsty for Him again.

In both of these cases the answer seems so simple. If we drink here and there through out our day we don't become thirsty. If we give moments to God here and there through out our day then we remain in Him and don't have to go searching when times aren't good.

Where my analogy falls apart...while a glass of water might not always be available; God is always available. His love for us is so great that He is always there. What happens when we don't spend these little moments with Him is that WE drift and become less connected to Him. But by His mighty grace and the precious gift of Jesus no matter how much we drift; he always will take his children back...we just need to start giving Him those moments again.