Feeling stressed out and out of control of your
life? Maybe it's time to prioritize it!
Priorities :
Planning your days
Often we are overwhelmed by too many things to
do because there are many good choices concerning how to apportion our
time. To set priorities is to determine what is important to you and how
your time is to be apportioned - that is, who and what will take precedence
over other parts of life.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light
for my path. The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding
to the simple.
Your personal relationship
to Jesus Christ
Matt 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
Phil 3:8
What is more, I consider everything a loss
compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may
gain Christ
Your commitment to home
and family - especially spouse and children
Gen 2:24
For this reason a man will leave his father
and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Ps 127:3
Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children
a reward from him.
Eph 5:22,25
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself
up for her
Eph 6: 4
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead,
bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
1 Tim 3:2-5
Now the overseer must be above reproach, the
husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable,
able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome,
not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his
children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to
manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)
1 Pet 3:7
Husbands, in the same way be considerate as
you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner
and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will
hinder your prayers.
and even to the extended
family, as so beautifully portrayed in the relationship between Ruth and
Naomi
Ruth 1:16,17
But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you
or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I
will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you
die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me,
be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
Your responsibility to
employer and tasks assigned
1 Thess 4:11,12
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,
to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told
you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that
you will not be dependent on
anybody.
Your service to God through
ministries in the church and involvement in the community
Col 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him.
Once you have these divinely appointed criteria in mind,
you are ready to sort out the opportunities that come
Ps 32:8
I will instruct you and teach you in the way
you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
and move forward in the most effective and productive
management of time and resources.
A very practical way of accomplishing this is:
consider each prayerfully
as to merit and timeliness
Col 2:5
For though I am absent from you in body, I
am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and
how firm your faith in Christ is.
arrange them in order
of importance, then proceed to do the most important things first
I Cor 14:40
But everything should be done in a fitting
and orderly way.
To be consistent in your priorities, consider these admonitions:
Assign God first place
Matt 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
Consult with the Father regularly in your quiet time
Ps 55:17
Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.
Luke 5:15,16
Yet the news about him spread all the more,
so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Examine your own heart
Eccl 3:1
There is a time for everything, and a season
for every activity under heaven:
Keep yourself spiritually fit
Is 30:15
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One
of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness
and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Jesus met with the Father in intensive prayer and meditation
to determine His priorities and to prepare Himself for each day
Luke 5: 15,16
Yet the news about him spread all the more,
so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Note also these precautions:
Put people before things
II Cor 8:5
And they did not do as we expected, but they
gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's
will.
Do not limit your investment in those you love,
and others who cross your path to money and gifts.
Look for ways to invest yourself, your time, your energies.
Family must be more important than occupation since the
Scripture clearly states that there is no success if the family is lost
I Tim 3:5; 5:8
(If anyone does not know how to manage his
own family, how can he take care of God's church?)If anyone does not provide
for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied
the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Titus 2:4,5
Then they can train the younger women to love
their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy
at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one
will malign the word of God.
Sometimes you must say “no” as Jesus did when seemingly
good requests for His time did not fit the overall plan for His ministry
.
Luke 4:42,43
At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.
The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they
tried to keep him from leaving them. He said, "I must preach the good news
of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was
sent."
The underlying principle in determining priorities is
always that spiritual values must overshadow worldly pursuits
II Cor 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but
on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is
eternal.
Prov 16:3
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and
your plans will succeed.
Luke 12:31
But seek his kingdom, and these things will
be given to you as well.
Eph 5:15,16
Be very careful, then, how you live--not as
unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days
are evil.
Sometimes we try to do it all instead of letting God lead
us. How wonderful that He gives us such great guidlines to put us back
on track!
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations
that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that
my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
Priorities :