"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
-Luke 12:34
Priorities: whether we know it or not, we all have them. As college students, we have daily priorities like eating, going to class, and (Lord willing everyone will agree with this) showering. Not only do we have daily priorities, we also have weekly priorities. These could include going to church, going to work (if you work part time), and exercising. But even beyond that, we have monthly and yearly priorities. Most of us college students would say finishing the current semester on a strong note is such a priority. But even still, reaching far over all of those things, we have even longer term priorities set for ourselves. I, for one, hope to graduate from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in political science in May of 2015 before continuing on to seminary. The fact of the matter is, we all have priorities in life, whether they be daily, monthly, or even more long term.
This last weekend, I was teaching the college ministry at Bethel Baptist Church on the topic of priorities. Towards the start of the message, I asked by show of hands who had ever made a New Year's resolution. Almost everyone there lifted their hands. I immediately followed this up by asking who had lasted the whole year and completed that resolution. One hand remained. For my own personal gratification, I asked how many had failed at their resolution. I joined about ninety percent of the room by lifting my hand. As I continued on, I explained that one of our primary faults with New Year's resolutions is that we make something our long term goal, but we don't make it a priority in our daily lives. For example, if your goal is to lose forty pounds, but don't commit yourself to waking up earlier to exercise and eat healthier foods, then you're not going to be where you should be a year from now. Regardless of how good your intentions were in setting that goal and no matter how much you talked it up, if you don't make that long term goal a priority in your daily life, it isn't gonna happen. If that's true for something as basic as a New Year's resolution, how much more true will that be for our purpose in life?
Did you know that you had a purpose in life? One of the most quoted (and unfortunately misquoted) scriptures in the Bible is Jeremiah 29:11, where it is written, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'". God has a plan for each and every one of our lives. I submit you to that our churches, if not a large portion of our society is filled with people that will tell you that they believe that. However, I think we need to look at where that long term purpose fits into our daily lives. On a much greater scale than a New Year's resolution, living with a God given purpose should drastically influence the priorities of our day. For many of us, however, in regards to our purpose, we fall into the procrastinative mindset that we find the Israelites suffering from in the Book of Haggai.
After living in exile away from their native Israel for many years, the Israelites were finally told they could return to their homeland by the Persian Empire. However, before the Persians were ruling, the Babylonians had occupied and exiled the Jews. During this time, the Temple of the LORD had been destroyed. As they returned to their homeland, God commanded them to rebuild the temple. However, the Isrealites got busy doing other things. Beginning in Haggai 1:2, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'These people say the time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.' Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 'Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?' Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways'" (Haggai 1:2-5). As you examine Haggai 1, you'll notice that the Israelites weren't doing bad things, per se. They were rebuilding their own houses and planting their fields for the harvest. Both of those things were very important to life; however, it's what they weren't doing that was the underlying problem. They weren't rebuilding the LORD's temple. I bet you, though, if you were to take a trip back to ancient Israel, and asked an Israelite what their purpose was in being back in Jerusalem, they would probably mention something about rebuilding the Temple of the LORD. They wanted to see it rebuilt. However, their daily priorities excluded rebuilding the temple because they became so focused on other demands of life. Because their priorities were out of whack, their whole society was suffering; it wasn't thriving by any means.
Matthew 6:33 tells us, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." God knows we have needs; after all, He did kinda make us. However, by very definition, God knows that He Himself is our greatest need. He is the provider of our purpose. Psalm 139:16 explains, "All the days ordained for me were written in [His] book before one of them came to be". When we realize that God holds our purpose, that should radically change what we prioritize in our daily lives. It should drive us to our knees in humble recognition that we need Him each and every day.
As I shared with the Bethel College Ministry on Sunday morning, one of my favorite scriptures is 2 Samuel 22:34, where it is written, "He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand upon the heights". God has given us a certain "high place" (or purpose) in life. But to find that "high place", we need to have the feet of a deer. You see, deer have the ability to track, meaning that the front feet will land in a secure place, and though they follow from behind, the back feet will land in the exact same spot as the front feet. Because all four feet are landing in secure locations, the deer can make it up to incredible heights, traversing the roughest of terrains. And that's exactly how God wants us to be with Him. The Bible tells us time and again that the LORD Himself goes before us. Think of God as the front feet, and think of us as the back feet. For us to reach our "high places" we need to be walking with Him. At that, we need to be walking where He has put His feet, not just anywhere we feel like walking. If walking with and seeking the Lord isn't a priority in our daily life, then we're not gonna be going anywhere anytime soon in regard to reaching our purpose. However, if we do make walking with Him the number one priority in our lives, then we're gonna be moving towards the purpose for which He has called us.
What did you prioritize today, and did that help you move any closer to taking hold of the prize for which the Lord has called you heavenward? Fortunately, it's never too late to realign those misaligned priorities; tomorrow is a new day. As Christians, we are called to prioritize for an eternal purpose.
CTrail
