It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down to write a devotional, but I can honestly say the idea for this devotional has been on my heart for quite some time. All my life, and I’m sure yours too, we’ve been told to “get our priorities straight.” If you are like me, you’ve grown up thinking there was a correct order of importance to things in your life. Not only is there a correct order, but if you kept things in that order and perspective, it meant you were leading a God-entered life, would be a good example to your family and friends and you would be blessed by doing so. If I were to ask you what your priorities in life were I’m sure they would fall within the scope and sequence of the following:
1. God
2. Family
3. Career
4. Whatever else
Well, to be quite honest, I’ve always had a problem with that list. I don’t like having to put God first. Not to mention, I really don’t like the fact that I feel like I have to say my family is second in order to “seem” like a good Christian. Heck, I love my job too! In fact, I hate being told to “get my priorities straight!” You know why, because it’s wrong. Whoa! What did I say? Don’t stop reading yet! I used to think I was the only person that felt this way until I was reading “The Shack” and then when I read a short devotional book by Beth Moore called “Discovering God’s Purpose for Your Life.” Both books did an excellent job of saying what I always felt, but could never find the words to express…God doesn’t want to be a priority in my life, not even the #1 priority, He wants to be the reason for my life! HE IS THE ONLY PRIORITY IN MY LIFE. “Well of course He does” you say, but think of this a little differently if you will.
When we make lists of our priorities like above, it is as if we are creating a check list of things to do. It’s as if once we have satisfied one priority, then we can move to the next. Consider Philippians 3:10 (from the Amplified):
“For my determined purpose is that I may know Him,
that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately
acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the
wonders of His Person.”
“He is not the most important thing, He is the ONLY thing. He is it. He is your life, not just a part of it, or even the most important thing in your life, He is everything.” (Beth Moore) The apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:4
“When Christ, who is your life, appears….”
How can this seemingly minor shift in our thinking so dramatically affect your lives? When your life becomes so focused on Christ, when He becomes a part of every decision you make from choosing a mate or a job, to what movies to see, to what team your kid will play for, to how your run your business, when He is THE REASON behind everything you do, it will dramatically impact your life. So many of our conflicts in life we create ourselves by not being in line with God’s will for us. We go to church on Sunday then put a check by God on our priority list and then move on to the next. Then we wonder why relationships fail, our children don’t behave the way we want or we are constantly fighting against life. God does give us a yoke, but His yoke is light (Matthew 11:30) and it is not a burden to bear. We think our loyalty lies with God when we say He is first in our life, but in reality, the loyalty we owe Christ is that He is our life. We must let Christ impact every decision we make. He can’t be at the top of the list; He must be throughout our list! He must be the light that infiltrates every crack, crevice and corner of our life.
Can I share something with you? I’m a control freak. (I see that head waggin!) I have had to learn the hard way something very simple to understand. If I wake up every morning reminding myself to be in line with God’s will for me, not put God’s will in line with what I want, life goes a lot smoother. I don’t fight against it. I’m learning to understand God is my life. The decisions I make are not made separate from Him because they don’t seem to involve that area of my life( spiritual), instead, I’ve come to try to understand that every decision involves spiritual issues because I’m a spiritual being of God’s. God is my life! My determined purpose is to know Him intimately.
Last thought…
When we first fall in love or even just meet someone new, we do everything we can to get to know them. We spend time with them, ask questions, etc. Then as we feel we’ve come to know everything about them, we quit investigating. We can’t treat God like that. We will NEVER know everything about God. We cannot “arrive” in our relationship with Him. We can’t “check” Him off our priority list because we went to church, worked at the soup kitchen or gave clothes to the needy. So, GET YOUR PRIORITIS STRAIGHT, throw your list away and let God be your life, not even the center of it! He is the life! He is your life and it is hidden in Christ! Col 3:3.
