Who's First?

Life is busy, and it seems to only be getting busier. Urgent, rules our lives, doesn't it? We live from one event to the next, and it seems to be never ending. The worst thing is that everyone seems to have more urgent stuff than YOU! So on the list of people who need attention, you are on the bottom...anyone feel like this?

We know what we want, and/or feel we need. Because, after all, who better to know what we want or need for ourselves, than ourselves, right? Although this is a totally natural feeling, it is totally wrong. I am not saying that we don't ever get it right, but most of the time, what we think is best for us, really is just what think will feel best for us. Yet our feelings can't always be trusted, right? Ever remember feeling like you had to have a certain fashion style in an outfit or hairstyle? Enough said.

Why do we seem to think we totally know best, and then end up blowing it? Look at what Paul said about this:

"For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing." Romans 7:19.

When it comes to doing the wrong thing, most of us have Phd. level experience from the school of hard knocks. So why is this? Simple - we broke design. God designed man to be in relationship with God. God set down the guidelines, and all man had to do, was follow them. We know how that worked out, and we have been suffering the consequences of this internal desire to do things our way ever since.

So how do we get back on the right track? Get back to the design, and the best way to understand the purpose of a design, is to ask the designer. His Words have the answers to those questions. So, when it comes to setting right priorities, God tells us clearly what and who should come first, and what it looks like lived out, here and now:

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3.

Think about this: When it comes to your life, you are not what is most important, you are what is most important to God. So instead of looking at everyone else as getting their way, and everything coming at you as roadblocks or obstacles to getting what you really want or deserve, look at them all as being from God. If you do this, you can no longer be angry at anyone, or mad at a situation or circumstance, but humbly appreciate what God has given you, and what He is doing for you. This then enables us to experience the joy of knowing we are right where God has us...right where we are supposed to be.

So who's first? God. And when He is in His rightful place in our lives, our lives get right.

...just prayin'

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat