Evaluating Priorities

Many use the New Year holiday as a time to evaluate priorities. When we do, we have to ask ourselves what is important to us. Our family? Our friends? A job? The community? Or is God the most important reality?

Jesus did not minimize family or friends or daily life. Remember that He restored sick children to their parents, He provided food for hungry people, and He blessed a wedding with His presence and with supernatural provision.

Yet Jesus made it clear that family and friends—or jobs and communities—cannot be most important. God must be pre-eminent.

He told a young man to sell everything he owned and then he would have treasure in heaven. (Mt. 19:21b NKJV) He told the disciples that anyone who prefers family members is not worthy of Me. (10:37b)

It seems too harsh when not understood in the light of grace. But if we put God ahead of all else, if He is first in our lives, through His provision we have more love to give others. In fact, we have more than if we had not put God first.

When preparing for His death, Jesus said, For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (16:25)

Jesus should always be our example, and He never subverted His priorities. He abandoned everything to His Father's will and brought salvation to all who receive him.

Originally published December 31, 1992.
Picture: Antique ceramic angels. Photo by Solveig.

He Had to Humbly Submit

Everyone is important in the eyes of God, but people long to feel or experience the value they have in Christ. And they can. Although Satan tries to destroy people, God knows how to honor the humble—and humble the honored—without destroying the self-esteem of either.

This happened to a little, unnamed slave girl and her master.

The master was Naaman, commander of the Syrian army. Under normal conditions he might scarcely have noticed the young member of his household. But he had a great need—he was afflicted with leprosy—so he listened to her message: “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria!” she said. “For he would heal him of his leprosy.” (II Kings 5:3 NKJV)

However, when Naaman pursued miraculous healing he discovered that God’s power didn’t respond to someone because of position or wealth. Instead, he had to humbly submit to instructions from an obscure servant of God. He was told to dip his body in the Jordan River. And when he obeyed, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child. . . . (v. 14)

Although Naaman’s ego was punctured, he did not doubt his value before God. Neither did the little girl who launched him on his journey.

Originally published October 18, 1991.

Picture: Flowers in Como Park Conservatory, 2008. Photo by Solveig.