Priorities sometimes seem like screaming sirens, competing for our attention. The "tyranny of the urgent", as someone has called it, dominates our lives. It's like the squeaky wheel - if it makes enough noise it gets top billing on our priority list. Unfortunately the urgent isn't always the important.
Several millennia ago God spoke to a prophet named Haggai and instructed him to remind the people of God of important priorities:
"Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?" Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:3-5)
Apparently the Jewish people were enjoying the good life in their comfortable homes all the while that the temple, the place of worship, lay in ruins. The priority of daily living had taken precedent over the things of the Lord.
Balancing personal and family priorities with spiritual priorities is tricky business. The priority to "seek first the kingdom of God" is general enough to leave lots of room for interpretation as to specific details. Additionally, our human ability to rationalize further complicates the task of properly discerning key priorities. It becomes much too easy to seek first the kingdom of self rather than the kingdom of God.
God's challenge through Haggai to "Consider your ways!" is a constant priority. Periodic self-examination is as essential to living as is weeding a garden. Rooting out unproductive and unnecessary growth is vital if we are to remain focused on key priorities.
I write these words as a new year stretches out fresh and crisp before us, ripe with potential and possibilities. That potential will become reality only through deliberate effort to "consider our ways" and arrange our priorities in a God-honoring way.
Personal worship, Bible study, prayer, discipline and Christian fellowship are at the heart of key spiritual priorities. How those essential priorities are integrated into our lives are as varied as our individual personalities.
Seeking to ignore "the siren of the urgent" as I listen for the still small voice of the Important,
Steve
Several millennia ago God spoke to a prophet named Haggai and instructed him to remind the people of God of important priorities:
"Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?" Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:3-5)
Apparently the Jewish people were enjoying the good life in their comfortable homes all the while that the temple, the place of worship, lay in ruins. The priority of daily living had taken precedent over the things of the Lord.
Balancing personal and family priorities with spiritual priorities is tricky business. The priority to "seek first the kingdom of God" is general enough to leave lots of room for interpretation as to specific details. Additionally, our human ability to rationalize further complicates the task of properly discerning key priorities. It becomes much too easy to seek first the kingdom of self rather than the kingdom of God.
God's challenge through Haggai to "Consider your ways!" is a constant priority. Periodic self-examination is as essential to living as is weeding a garden. Rooting out unproductive and unnecessary growth is vital if we are to remain focused on key priorities.
I write these words as a new year stretches out fresh and crisp before us, ripe with potential and possibilities. That potential will become reality only through deliberate effort to "consider our ways" and arrange our priorities in a God-honoring way.
Personal worship, Bible study, prayer, discipline and Christian fellowship are at the heart of key spiritual priorities. How those essential priorities are integrated into our lives are as varied as our individual personalities.
Seeking to ignore "the siren of the urgent" as I listen for the still small voice of the Important,
Steve
posted by steve @ 11:56 AM
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