Priorities
One of the things I have had to do over the time I have been ill is prioritise. With neither the energy or the breath to do much, I now have to decide what really needs doing, and conversely, what could quite easily manage without being done. For me, as someone who never has done just sitting around, that has been a very interesting situation.
It has also made me have to sit back, and let God speak, to allow him to touch me in my vulnerability, and to reflect on where he fits in my priorities – and where he has fitted in my busy busy life.
It can difficult to prioritise in life. And so God invites us all to make a choice. We can choose life and success, or death and disaster. The Israelites are about to cross the Jordan into the land that God has promised them, and they have to decide how they are going to life their life there. Are they going to get it right or wrong? Are they going to choose God’s way, or another way? Is he going to be their priority, or is something else?
They are urged to choose life, to be completely faithful to God, love him, and do whatever he tells them to do. In other words to make him their number one priority. Then they will live a long time in that land.
If God is our priority in life, then it is my experience that everything else falls into place. There are many things to worry about, many things to sort out, but if we sort out the things of God first, then everything else will follow.
Jesus offers us the same challenge. Following him demands that we put him above all things. He’s not asking us to disregard our nearest and dearest, he’s not offering us an excuse to ignore them to “get on with the work of the Lord”. He’s not advising us to never start a task, and he’s not telling us to never take on a fight. But in following Jesus and loving him first we will get all those tasks right. They will be in a proper perspective.
Life can be difficult, or it can give great pleasure, but neither extremes should detract us from God.
Jesus says, “You cannot be my disciples unless you give away everything you own”. He’s not necessarily asking us to give up everything, but to be willing to. We should carry the things of life lightly. Everything we have and do is held in the context of loving God and choosing his way. As we are willing to relinquish – God gives back to us. Maybe not what we expect, perhaps not in the way we imagine, but living in the love and life of God brings us everything we need.
So who and what will be our priorities in life? Choose God. Love him and be faithful to him – he will always be faithful to you.
Pam's Perambulation 