PC3 Devotions Highest Priority Posted: 28 Oct 2013 09:00 PM PDT Matthew 6:25-33 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Insight The things that burden us capture our thoughts, demand our attention and influence our schedules. Each one of us has different priority levels for the things taking place in our lives. You have practical burdens like finances, job and day-to-day responsibilities, then there are relational burdens and priorities that come with being in messy, human relationships. And, then you have those weighty burdens that deal with the future, faith and eternity. All of these things are going to be fighting for position. Each one wants to be your highest burden, focus and priority. Something is going to end up on the top. It is inevitable. We can decide this intentionally or have it decided for us by circumstances. Unfortunately, we often don’t stop long enough to reflect and consider what’s at the top of our list. Pause for a moment and ask yourself: what’s at the top of the list? But, more importantly, what should be at the top? If you believe in Jesus and consider yourself one of His followers, what should be your highest priority? What’s most important to Him? When you read through the story of God found in the Bible, you can’t help but notice that God’s main focus was relationships. The Old Testament is the story of God pursuing His people. The Gospels are the story of Jesus who loved people in ways never seen before. Jesus came to earth to restore our relationship with God. This isn’t an earth shattering revelation to many of you. You know that relationships are God’s highest priority and, as a result, should be yours as well. You understand this should be what defines your life, but often you fall short. You let other things take priority and occupy your thoughts, time and energy. Why do we have such a hard time making God’s priorities our own? The world we live in pushes our focus on the practical and worldly things. As a result, we wait until everything we carry on our shoulders is solved before we can move on to the deeper burdens and priorities. The problem with this way of thinking is that we’ll be waiting forever because they aren’t all going to get solved. Our narrow focus prohibits us from stepping back and taking a look at the bigger picture of things in our lives and in the world. We have to change the way we think. We have a lack of trust in God that pushes us away from Him and forces us to kind of circle the wagons and worry about our burdens. At some point we have a decision to make. Are we going to believe what the Bible says is true even when we aren’t experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises here and now or are we going to allow what we see and experience and the world’s “wisdom” to dictate what we believe to be true? What if we could truly trust God and the idea that He works for the good of all who love Him and because of that cast our burdens onto Jesus and trust that He will take care of our needs? Often times we hold onto our burdens without realize the devastating effects this causes. Holding on to our burdens can prohibit us from embracing God’s priorities. It’s really easy for individuals to gravitate towards other burdens and forget the real burden. This is why we must lift our concerns up to God. When we can truly cast our burdens on Him, we experience a real freedom, which allows us to focus on the bigger priority that walks around us all the time and that is people. If we can wrap our head around our relationship with God as our first focus, it will easily lead us to embrace the second most important priority which it is people. By helping others through their burdens God somehow lifts our burdens off of us. It’s a reorientation of our burdens and a reorganizing of our priorities. Are we going to be people who focus on our own burdens, which prohibit us from seeing the bigger picture, or are we going to cast our burdens onto Jesus, seek first His kingdom and continue to invest in people? Reflection How can holding on to our burdens prohibit us from embracing God’s priorities? Prayer God, may You be the one who sets my priorities. Let my heart reflect Your own. Instead of worrying about my own little world, may I lay it at your heart so I can engage the world around me for Your name. Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 10:07:35 +0000
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