Prioritizing Your Life

Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. Joshua 22:5

I begin today's entry with this verse from Joshua because I believe it speaks volumes about how we should prioritize our lives. But, unfortunately, we often put God last or forget him completely when we are defining the priorities of our lives.

For the next few entries I want to look at the human reality of priorities and God's plan for priorities in our lives. As I have begun to look at this for myself, I have been broken and humbled before my God begging his forgiveness for the mess I've made of the life he has given me. I can't go back and undo the wasted time or the lost opportunities, but going forward I can be sure that my priorities for my life match his and not what the world thinks they should be.

How do we do that? First I believe we have to turn to scripture to understand what our true purpose for being here is, and for understanding how to fit the plan of God into the world of man. Not always easy to do you might say, but oh so worth it in the end.

The verse from Joshua sets up the plan perfectly, doesn't it? We are to "...love the Lord your God and walk in all his ways and keep his commandments." What's that you say, you do this. Really? Because I know I don't. What about this passage from Exodus. It should be familiar to you:

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11

So, when was the last time you remembered the sabbath? You, like me, went to church last Sunday. That's it, right? Wrong. Oh how wrong we are. That is only the beginning of what this verse is saying and I (we) miss it all the time. Let me explain.

How many times did you check work email last Sunday? Did you check your work messages on Voice Mail? What about going shopping for groceries? Did you do that? Or, go to the mall to check out the latest sales? Maybe you actually went in to the office on Sunday. Why? Who told you that you needed to do that? Did it really help you get ahead for the week? If God created the entire world in six days and then rested on the sabbath, are you saying that you are more important than God? That without you, your work will go undone and people will be disappointed? Don't even go there!

So, this is the first lesson in prioritizing your life: You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:3

1. Put nothing before God. Not your family, not your friends, and especially, not your job. Give to Him first, not last, and He will make the way straight for you.