Priorities

Introduction

Pass out sheets of paper and take a pencil to make two columns. In the first column write down the three or four things which demand your attention—three or four things which demand your energy, time, and attention. In the second column write down the three or four things which are important to you, things that you would say without hesitation are top priority in your life. Now compare the two lists. Are they in agreement? Do they go together as a hand in a glove, like ham and eggs, like peanut butter and jelly, or are they oil and water?

We get things out of balance. The demands of our job, upkeep on a house, business, and life can pull us away from things that are really important. You would, of course, expect me to say that our priorities are to center around God, but the truth is that such a statement suggests that God can be compartmentalized—that there is a part that belongs to God and that is the part we are to think about rather than business, education, or a house. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real balance is found in making sure that God is a part of all those energy consuming, time demanding tasks. Priorities means to keep things in perspective, to emphasize things which exalt the will of God, and to wisely forfeit opportunities which may take us away from God and his will.

Too many times we allow the events of life to distract us from what is really important. We get trapped in believing that something else is needed. Paul in our text says that we have been raised with Christ and in verse 3 that we died. This is baptismal language. Upon our confession that Jesus is Lord and that we wanted to give our lives to him, our priorities changed. We died to sin, died to self, died to earthly things. Instead we now set our hearts on things above. Our sights are set on the glory which will come with Christ rather than on the things of this world. That is a whole lot easier to say than it is to do.

So what will help us to maintain our priorities? Again, I am not talking about compartmentalizing life. I am talking about how do we keep God as a part of everything we do. And by doing so, we learn how to say “no” to things which distract from God’s will and “yes” to those things which allow us to abide in him, knowing that our strength comes from him. I would like to suggest two or three and then at the end of our lesson, give you an opportunity to suggest others or to expand on these.

Maintaining Our Priorities

First, stay in the word. When we are spending time with God and his word on a regular basis, then we are able to maintain a clearer focus on the important rather than allowing the urgent to run our lives. When we are spending time with God and his word, we become more interested in pleasing him rather than pleasing others. C.H. Spurgeon wrote, “It is blessed to eat into the soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.” This kind of commitment doesn’t just happen. It takes determination and commitment to be in the word of God.

Second, be authentic. We live our lives behind a mask. We bluff our way through life. We work hard at allowing others to believe that we know how to do something when we don’t. I can remember my parents telling me more than once to “just be yourself.” And yet we think that may not be good enough. Guess what? It never will be. The truth is that we aren’t perfect people; we aren’t people who always have the right words, facial expressions, or thoughts; we aren’t able to have all insight, but what we do have is the ability to just be ourselves. Let’s allow ourselves to be real—to be free to question, to be free to admit weakness and failure. When a person is real, he or she doesn’t have to win or always be in the top ten or make a big impression or look pious. Of course, there are things about “self” that need to change, but if we are going to keep our focus on what is important rather than the urgent, then we are going to have to be real. To pretend takes too much energy away from the important.

Real people enjoy life more. Real people don’t take themselves too seriously. They laugh, cry, and think more freely because there is nothing to prove—no image to protect or role to play. They live fearlessly because they have nothing hidden.

Third, be grace oriented. My mind works in a strange way. Almost every time I use the word grace, I have to internally explain to myself that grace doesn’t mean no standards. To be gracious means that we develop a spirit of compassion and understanding. We are not so rigid that we are not willing to allow room for growth. Being gracious does not mean that we do not call people to a higher standard or to make changes, but we realize that people sin and such sin does not eliminate them from God’s love. Being gracious means that we are accepting of others even as we call for them to be more godly in their choices and lifestyle.

I would quickly add to this that we need to be grace oriented toward ourselves as well. Learning to accept others as sinners means we need to learn to accept ourselves as sinners as well. Sometimes we hold ourselves to such a high standard that failure is unacceptable. We end up believing that God cannot love a failure like us. Even as we are learning to give grace, we must be willing to accept grace from others and from God. God wants a relationship with you—warts and all. His grace sees the warts wanting to do away with them, but he never holds us at arm’s length until we get it right. As the old song says, “Just as I am without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, and that thou biddst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!”

Finally, to keep our focus on the important rather than the urgent, we need to have a clear mission in mind. What are your goals in life? Of course, so much of that depends on our age and our state in life. For some it is just getting through the next exam and for others it is just getting out of bed. There is an old saying that if you aim at nothing you are bound to hit it. So what are your goals?

Perhaps the toughest question to ask is not “what are your goals in life?” but what would others say your goals in life are? What would your spouse, your kids, your friends, your closest confidante say are your goals for life? Now that is the tough question. May we keep our focus on what is important rather than on the urgent. May we learn that all of life is about the influence of God rather than compartmentalizing life.

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