Set Your Priorities in Order

Today's post is a devotional written by my husband.  As a wife, mom, and leader I frequently have to remind myself to keep my priorities in order.

Set priorities according to God, family, and work, in that order.

Psalm 100:3 states: “Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.”  As we keep that in mind, we have to come face to face with the reality that none of us is a “self-made man” or woman.  Regardless of our title or role in our company, the amount of money we earn as an employee or entrepreneur, the prestige and honor afforded us by society, the political clout we may claim to have, the fame of our family name, or the size of our family, we didn’t get to where we are in life based on our intellectual superiority or even our hard work.

God alone gives each of us our skills and abilities.  He is the one who created our “innate” abilities to grasp certain concepts; to achieve specific goals; to know certain facts; to apply our knowledge wisely to different and new situations.   James 1:17 reminds us that “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”  He is the one that gives us the opportunities to use our abilities to honor Him.   He directs our circumstances, paths, and steps, as we read in Jeremiah 10:23: “I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.”  God is the one who creates opportunities in our lives for us to glorify Him.

It is important to remember that not all of us are equipped with the same gifts, and for good reason.  God empowers each of us with a different set of gifts, as we read in Ephesians 4:11-12:  “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers…”   In our lives as part of the body of God, 1 Corinthians 12 describes how the many different parts of the body are all needed, including the ones on whom less honor is typically bestowed.  Regardless of our “position” or status in life, everyone plays an important role in the body of Christ.  

Why does God dispense gifts and abilities differently?  The rest of Ephesians 4:11-12 tells us why we are given different talents: “… for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”  

And that is the lesson that we can learn and practice as we set our priorities in life.  

Our first priority is, or should be, indisputably God, and seeking His glory and honor.   Everything we do should be centered around whether we are glorifying Him and obeying His commandment to take His Gospel message effectively to the world.  What we do in life, where we do it, with whom we do it, and how we do it – all those questions should be answerable and defensible in context of whether we are in God’s will for our lives in order to bring Him glory.

Our earthly family is our next-highest priority.  Your family may be large; it may be small; it may be spread out around the world, or you might have three or four generations under one roof, with the rest of your relatives all living within a block or two of you.  But your family could be simply described as “the group of related people into which God has placed you, to love and to keep, to cherish, to protect, and to be with - until death separates you from them.”  Paul wrote much about how we should relate to our family in his first letter to Titus.  In chapter 5, verse 8, we read: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  God clearly intends for us to take care of our family as our second priority, above all other things except God himself.  Our decisions and choices in how to glorify and honor God should guide how we care for our family and provide for them, and we should never let earthly ambitions and achievements become idols that preempt the proper prioritization of our family.

After God, then family, our next priority should be the work we do, and how we do it. 1 Corinthians 10:31 clearly says, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  As we remembered earlier, God equips each us differently, so whatever work you may do, wherever God may place you to serve, and for as long as God may give you on this earth, do whatever God would have you do in a manner that brings glory and honor to Him.

But as we serve God in whatever we do, how should we do our work? Colossians 3:23 and 24 make plain that answer: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”  If we walk in His will, and work as unto His glory, we can look forward with anticipation and take comfort in knowing that one day, when we stand before God at the end of our time here on earth, we will hear what Jesus told in Matthew 25:21 in the parable of the talents: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”

With that reward as a goal kept in mind each day, set your priorities in life to: honor God first; serve your family next; and then set your hand heartily to whatever work God has given you to do.  That, alone, is the recipe for success in God’s eyes, and that’s what matters most.