Prioritizing God’s Way
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Busyness
Likely we were all busy today. We were all busy this week. We have been busy all year. But did we give the highest priority to being busy with the Lord’s work and with His desires or did we give the highest priority to “getting the things done that need to be done?”
Getting Ahead
We have been raised in a competitive capitalistic society that says that if you want to “get ahead” you need to set goals and work hard and never give up. If you do that you are supposed to be successful. Now I am all for hard work and I am for “success” (whatever that is), but God’s ways are not our ways according to Isaiah 55:8. God tells us that if we put Him first, He will put us first. Maybe we wouldn’t have to work so hard if we tried the formula that has been given to us.
Making Worship a Priority
Today, I looked around at our meetings of the church. I am one who believes that the Lord appreciates it when we put Him first in the week. We usually do that in our assembly meetings by “remembering the Lord.” This is a time when we don’t preach the Gospel (though you can’t remember the Lord without being reminded of the value of the cross and of the love of God). We don’t feed the poor at the meeting. We don’t usually get a doctrinal understanding of the deep things of Scripture at this meeting. We just pause for a while to say thank you. Is that putting the Lord first? I think it is because He is the one who has asked us to remember Him by taking a loaf of bread and a cup of wine and sharing that in a symbolic meal with other Christians. The Lord’s dying request was that we do this in remembrance of Him. So if we love Him and if this is the desire of His heart, it would seem that we would want to be involved in something so simple that pleases Him. However, there seems to be many reasons tor being absent from this meeting. After all, our kids need to be playing volleyball, we need to prepare for company, and we only have Sunday to catch up on the things we let go all week, right? Wrong.
The Urgency of Salvation
We know that a proper relationship with the Lord requires us to “repent and believe the Gospel.” I don’t believe anyone has ever trusted the Lord casually. When we find out that we are sinners in need of a Savior and that the end of the road is eternal destruction without the salvation provided for us at the cross, most people find that knowing for sure that they are right with God becomes extremely important. They begin reading their Bibles and talking to those who can help them, and they may even go to evangelistic meetings. They begin to “seek first the kingdom of God.” Once they put the Lord and their need of salvation first, it usually isn’t long before they truly trust the Lord who died for them. I don’t think anyone ever “gets saved” until they put the Lord and His claims on them first.
The Blessing of Right Priorities
We know that we who are saved are called to serve in some capacity. And most of us will, as soon as we get the kids through college, as soon as we retire, as soon as we take that trip we have been planning for ages. We really do have good intentions, but life happens and gets in the way of our good intentions. I am one of those people who serve the Lord in what is often called a “full-time” capacity. And I find myself letting the Lord’s work get in the way of the Lord’s work. We get so busy with our plans that we forget to let the Lord tell us what He wants. Instead we begin to tell Him what He wants.
Yes, the principle is clear. Put the Lord first in order to be saved. Put the Lord first once you are saved. The Lord doesn’t want second place, He wants the preeminent place. And I intend to make it my business to do just that—starting tomorrow! Tonight I have some things to do first.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of November 9, 2014