Persons are busier than ever nowadays. There appear to be so many duties to be carried out and alternatives to benefit from that it’s onerous to find out what’s finest in a world of fine and higher. After we haven’t decided our priorities, it’s simple to really feel overwhelmed and exhausted.
After we learn in regards to the lifetime of our Lord, we see that He knew His mission and stayed true to it. He got here to earth to meet His Father’s plan for Him, and on the finish of His life, He might say with integrity that He completed what God had despatched Him to do (John 17:4). Whereas hanging on the cross, He cried, “It’s completed” (John 19:30).
Similar to we don’t have limitless cash to purchase no matter we would like, we don’t have limitless time to do no matter we would like. God has ordained that there are solely 24 hours in a day. That’s 168 hours in per week. God expects us to be good stewards of our time and efficient for His Kingdom.
We must always take the phrases of Moses to coronary heart:
“Train us to quantity our days aright, that we might achieve a coronary heart of knowledge” (Ps. 90:12).
And fortunately, we have now this promise to cling to:
“If any of you lacks knowledge, he ought to ask God, who offers generously to all with out discovering fault, and it is going to be given to him” (James 1:5).
We want God’s knowledge and assist as we set up biblical priorities that assist us be efficient for God’s Kingdom. Needless to say sure priorities will take priority relying on an individual’s season of life.
These questions assist us take into consideration priorities: (1) What are the non-negotiables in our life? (Issues that we, as followers of Christ, are commanded to do.) (2) What are the negotiables in our life? (Issues we’d love to do however which can be versatile or not essential.) (3) How do we all know what our priorities needs to be after which stay them out?
Biblical Priorities
As we take into consideration find out how to develop biblical priorities, we should understand that we do what we do as a result of we would like what we would like. Listed here are extra inquiries to mirror on as we take into consideration priorities:
- Will we plan forward to maximise our God-given time, or can we simply let life occur?
- Will we make selections of what we’ll do every day primarily based on the targets God has for us primarily based on Scripture, or can we make our selections primarily based on what feels good in the intervening time?
- Will we consider alternatives primarily based on biblical priorities, or what would profit us? God’s kingdom or our kingdom?
- Have we thought-about the place God would have us serve within the physique of Christ, or can we attempt to please everybody by saying sure to the whole lot?
In Scripture, we come to know that God has a goal for every of us:
- To be His picture bearers and to be fruitful (Gen. 1:26-28)
- To declare His praises (1 Pet. 2:9-10; Eph. 1:4-6)
- To be conformed to the picture of His Son (Rom. 8:28-30)
God additionally has targets for us:
- To like Him and our neighbors (Matt. 22:37-39)
- To hunt His kingdom (Matt. 6:33)
- To please Him (2 Cor. 5:9)
- To serve Him as we deny ourselves and comply with Him (Matt. 16:24-26)
We’re advised in Ephesians 5:15, 16:
“Be very cautious, then, how you reside—not as unwise however as sensible, benefiting from each alternative, as a result of the times are evil.”
The Lord expects us to think about how we use our time significantly.
God’s Priorities for Us
Precedence #1 – God Himself
Our relationship with the Lord is our first precedence and will affect all different priorities. We preserve this in thoughts in order that we don’t tackle tasks that may hinder conserving God first in our lives.
- Do we have now a plan for creating our love for Him? Are we rising spiritually?
- Do we have now time deliberate every day to spend time with the Lord? Or can we simply hope one way or the other it occurs?
- Are we studying Scripture and making use of scriptural truths every day?
- Are we spending deliberate time praying to the Lord?
- Are we at church commonly to worship?
Precedence #2 – Partner
If married, our second precedence is our partner. Our partner is to be our first ministry and our #1 human relationship.
- Do we have now a plan for creating love for our partner?
- Are we placing our ministry to our partner above different ministries?
- Do we all know what’s necessary to our partner concerning our priorities?
Precedence #3 – Household & Residence
- Are we instructing and coaching our youngsters? What character qualities or behaviors do we would like our youngsters to develop?
- How nicely are we managing our house? What areas do we have to work on?
- Do our dad and mom have wants that we needs to be assembly?
Precedence #4 – Church
Being a part of and serving in a Bible preaching and instructing church is a non-negotiable facet of each believer’s life.
Precedence #5 – Work & Neighborhood
Placing this final doesn’t imply it’s not necessary to God as a result of it’s.
- How are we letting our “mild” shine? Are our lives giving others a “good opinion” of God?
The Christian life is about relationships, beginning with the very most necessary— our relationship with God—and understanding from there!
A Sensible Course of
- Make a listing of all of the actions you might be at present doing or needs to be doing. This listing ought to mirror your non-negotiables and negotiables.
- Put the person actions from that listing into one of many 5 applicable precedence teams simply mentioned.
- From the actions inside a single group, decide the priorities inside that group.
- Decide whether or not what you’ve scheduled is cheap inside the time you’ve allotted. Remember that issues take longer than we expect. Perceive that some decrease priorities might not get carried out.
- Schedule time to catch your breath, to both relaxation, re-group, train, or learn.
- When itemizing out your actions, have in mind issues that you just want to do day by day, weekly, month-to-month, and yearly.
- Placed on a calendar the issues you have got written down, understanding that God might interrupt at any time, and that’s okay.
- To implement our God-given priorities, we should be keen to do the onerous work of figuring out them after which be keen to say no to lesser issues vying for our time. We could be grateful that God has graciously directed our paths.
Questions for Reflection
- Have you ever taken the time to develop priorities in line with God’s Phrase?
- What hindrances will you encounter when deciding priorities?
- What advantages do you suppose will include sustaining biblical priorities?
