Itās so easy to say yes to anything, because deep down we struggle with wanting to do everything, donāt we? Our sister stops by and needs help with a house project. A friend recently had a baby and asked for a meal to be dropped off. Our kids want to have a friend over, which turns into allllll the friends coming over and your chill Friday night has turned into a teenage fest of cooking/entertaining the hormonal masses.
Phew! That escalated quickly, can anyone relate?
I heard it said recently that if you have more than 3 prioritiesā¦you donāt have any priorities at all.
To which I responded āNO WAY! That canāt be true!ā
And then everything in me folded, itās totally true. In a climate of life where everything is clamoring for our attention, weāre tempted to do it all because we hate missing out. But, is doing it all really what God wants for us? Is it biblical? Is that really what it takes to have the relationship with God/ Jesus/ The Holy Spirit that we should? Or is saying yes to all the seeming priorities really pulling us away from what our true priority should actually be?
When asked what the most important commandment was to obey, what did Jesus have to say? In other words how did he respond when asked what our #1 priority should be?
āJesus said to him, āāYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.ā This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: āYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.ā On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.ā Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV
From Jesusās lips, to Godās earsā¦..this puts a lot of āprioritiesā into perspective.
I think Jesus is helping us in the best way possible-HE is setting the standard of what our priority should be. Our relationship with God needs to come first. We canāt do it all, be it all, or focus on it all. If we are going to set a priority, intention or filter anywhere in our lives it has got to be this: Loving God, and our relationship with him, needs to come first.
Let me back it up for a second with the idea of priority in focus: If loving God first is our priority, everything else in our life should be done out of our love for him. And, if that love for him isnāt in place then fixing Him as our first priority is where our priority should be. Iām not saying drop your sister when she needs you, or refuse to take any new moms a meal, or ban the hungry hormonals from coming over. Iām saying donāt let your commitment to other people, other things, or the whole of where you spend your life eclipse or take the place of loving God first. When our love for God is put in its proper place, as the priority of our life, it opens the door for the rest to flow. Itās easier to look outside of ourselves, to take care of the needs othersā¦..even to take care of ourselves when we have put God as the priority in all things. Loving God first flows into every relationship and every compartment of our lives. Everything else can filter through keeping God first, not the other way around.
Closing thought: If this is where Jesus said to focus, that is why we need to focus our attention. Ask God to help you. Ask Jesus to walk with you. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. We canāt afford to miss this because of its paramount importance. So take it one moment, one day, one commitment at a time, and put your relationship with God at the center of it all.
Much love,
Joy