Getting our priorities right …

We like to think the Bible can be a difficult book, but so much of it is remarkably easy to understand and clear in its message.

Take, for example, what the Bible has to say regarding what the priority of our lives should be.

It isn’t what we usually make it out to be.

We can get so mired down in worrying about the simplest of life’s needs that we give far too much attention to the unimportant. Jesus spoke concisely and clearly about priorities in life …

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? … So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need,” Matthew 6:25, 31-33.

Instead of obeying this exhortation from Jesus, we often turn it upside down, arguing we don’t have time to seek the kingdom of God because we’re too busy tending to things like needing to do our grocery shopping, making dinner, doing laundry, etc. But Jesus cuts through the daily mundane to state clearly and unequivocally what our priority in life should be:

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” – Matthew 6:33.

In his contribution to the “Expositor’s Bible Commentary,” theologian D.A. Carson uses the example of Matthew responding to Jesus to illustrate the call to get our priorities right …

Matthew, a tax collector, is making money hand over fist. Despised by all the people for collaborating with the Romans, he absorbs himself in his world of money. Then one day, Jesus passes by, looks at Matthew, and simply says, “Follow Me.” And for one brief moment, Matthew has a dilemma. A split-second image of all his gold and his silver and his house and his possessions. Then he looks at Jesus and realizes he’s got to make a choice – he can’t have both. But there was no comparison. He recognized instantly that he was looking at the True Treasure, the true riches. And he left everything: He made a sacrifice that turned out to be no sacrifice at all. He made a choice for the Kingdom.

Matthew’s choice is the way Jesus tells us to structure the priorities in our own lives — “… Seek the Kingdom of God above all else …”

Notice Jesus didn’t say to make the kingdom of God important to us.

He didn’t say to place our seeking the kingdom of God higher up on our list of priorities.

What He said — concisely and clearly, easily understandable to anyone — was for us to seek the kingdom of God “… above all else.”

You simply could not get any clearer about priorities than that!

So, is that how you have structured the priorities of YOUR life?

Scotty