Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:4-7
Insight: In day 24 of learning to apply biblical principles to our daily life as we march towards Easter, what we are referring to as Practical Christianity, let’s consider what it means to have our priorities in line with Gods teaching and what happens when we don’t because our problems begin when our priorities are out of whack. We chase things with no eternal value at the expense of things with great eternal value. Simply put, we don’t invest our time, we spend our time. I believe that many of our problems occur because sometimes our priorities get so out of whack! This is a global truth! This is true in governments, in sports teams, in business and in our personal lives. I know when I put lesser things before Christ, things don’t go well. When I put lesser things before time with my family, things don’t go well. When I put selfish pursuits in front of selfless pursuits, things don’t go well. When I put my opinions or emotions before God’s truth found in His word, things don’t go well. Dallas Willard is one of my favorite teachers on all matters related to the Bible and Christianity. One of his quotes that really grabbed my attention was when he was commenting on what ails America and the World as a whole and he said our priorities are all out of whack. He said “we worship work, work at play and play at worship.”
When I read this, I was of course convicted and compelled to look more introspectively at my own life and how I prioritize things. Honest introspection is a key to our spiritual growth. Was I living my life in an opposite manner to what I should be and thus not feeling the power of God that I truly desired? I had to be honest with myself and came away determined to be more fervent about my approach to worshiping my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I had to be more intentional, devote more time to Him and His word, and most importantly I needed to rekindle my enthusiasm for putting Him first in my life. You see if we are not careful, we can let lesser things take His rightful place as first in our life. Was I rejoicing in Him? Was I viewing Him in first place in my life as a blessing, or as a burden? Setting priorities is a good exercise for us to do on a consistent basis and then to be honest in how we are doing in living our life in accordance with our stated priorities. God, family and everything else should be the way we prioritize our life if we want the best results and the greatest impact. Do we need to re-calibrate some things? It is worth considering the question and getting our priorities in order, so we can live our life to the fullest potential. After all, we can’t rejoice in the Lord, as Philippians 4:4-5 above states, unless we take the first step and put Him first in our lives.
Prayer: Father God, help us to honestly look at how we spend our time and to see if our priorities are in line with how you say we should spend our time. Do we honestly and earnestly seek you first above all things? Do we treasure our family and put them above all other earthly treasures? Do people that know us see that we spend our time on the things that you say are most important? Give us strength to not spend time as the world says we should, but rather as you say we should through your Word. Amen!
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