How do you determine your top priorities in life, and what are they?

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Off the top of your head right now, what would you say are the top priorities in your life?

Not what you think they should be, or someone else thinks they should be, but looking at how you live your life, what are your top priorities right now?

Priorities are important, and we need to get them right, because they’ll get first dibs on our time, attention, and resources because … well, they’re priorities!

What is often taught about priorities is that we should do the most important things first. That piece of advice was very helpful to this business executive …

    Industrialist Charles Schwab was a key figure in Andrew Carnegie’s steel empire. Frustrated with his inability to get everything done, he once reluctantly agreed to meet with a consultant named Ivy Lee, who was recommended to him by John D. Rockefeller. Schwab had little use for consultants, but since Rockefeller recommended Lee so highly, he scheduled the meeting. Lee’s proposal was elegantly simple.

    He told Schwab to make a list of the six most important things he could do the next day to further the overall health and function of U.S. Steel. At the end of the day, Schwab was to review the list, move anything that had not been finished to the top of the next day’s list, and then add enough items to make a total of six again. Within fifteen minutes, the meeting concluded. Lee told Schwab to follow this practice for thirty days, and then send him a payment based on how much Schwab thought the advice was worth. After the month ended, Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000!

    Source: Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?; Charles E. Watson, Thomas A. Idinopulos

Making sure “the most important things” are key priorities is important for us as well. So much so, we find that scripture helps followers of Jesus to easily understand what Jesus considers to be some things that should be top priorities for us, such as:

1. Love. “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?’ Jesus replied, ‘”You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments,'” Matthew 22:34-40. Jesus makes it clear our single greatest priority is to love – God first and above all, and then to love others. Would you say this kind of love is priority number one in your lie?

2. Make disciples. “Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age,'” Matthew 28:18-20. By Christ’s authority, He commissioned the church to carry on His mission. The church exists to achieve this priority! Is it a top priority with you?

3. Be an ambassador. How is this Great Commission — a priority with Jesus, and so a priority with His followers — carried out? By every Christian making it a priority to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ because God is making His appeal through us! “And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!'” 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. Is your carrying out your appointment as an ambassador for Jesus a priority for you?

4. Seek the Kingdom of God. “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 6:31-33. Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

How do your priorities, as they are right now, compare to what scripture points to as what should be our top priorities? Do you need to re-order anything?

Scotty