Kingdom Priorities

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 

The New Year is upon us and it is full of possibilities! That’s the exciting thing about a new year, is the hope that things can be different, things can be better, goals can be accomplished and a fresh start is to be had. 

Even though we may not have accomplished everything we wanted to last year, that doesn’t stop the hope and anticipation of a new year being different. And we are right to be hopeful, for God says in Lamentations 3:22–23:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Every morning, every day, every week, every month and every year, God’s steadfast love and mercies provide an opportunity for growth, for healing, for hope of the abundant life that Jesus promised us (John 10:10).

The reality is there is an enemy of our soul who does try to steal, kill and destroy our hope and our change that leads to that abundant life. And we should be watchful and mindful of his attempts. 

But the enemy we need to worry about in meeting our New Year’s resolutions and personal goals is closer than you think. It’s you. I mean it is ourselves that gets in our own way. We look forward to a new year, we make resolutions and promises of change and growth, but then we slip right back into the same old patterns, the same habits and nothing really changes. 

So the biggest changes we need this year is to reprioritize our values and time management. Trust me, I am writing this just as much to myself as I am to you. 

The problems is based in our own desire for comfort and pleasure. We may not want to admit it, but we are all hedonists at heart (a person who believes pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing). We want everything to be comfortable, enjoyable and pleasurable. We want change, but at our own pace. We want growth, but not if I have to give up my xbox, social media, music, toxic friendship, tv show, etc. 

Somethings we hold on to aren’t inherently bad, they are just distractions from the good. What we need is a perspective beyond our daily routine.   

Psalm 90:12

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 

We don’t know how many days we have, but we all know they are limited. We each get 24 hours in a day, 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. How are we numbering those and making the best of those?

What would you do if you were giving $86,400 and someone stole $100 from you? Would you focus on the $100 so much that you miss out on enjoying what you could do with $86,300? Why do we get so caught up in a person cutting us off, or saying a something negative to us and let it ruin our whole day? 

So we need to learn to pursue a heart a wisdom with our days, minutes and seconds numbered.

Ephesians 5:15–17

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

Here we are told that walking in a wise way is to make the best use of our time, to manage it with wisdom recognizing there is evil in the world. How? We understand what the will of the Lord is. What is the will of the Lord and how can we know it? 

God’s will is a large topic that we can’t fully unpack here, but a general statement is that God’s will is for you to love Him with all your heart, soul and mind, learning to be faithful to His words and treating others as He would treat them. 

It is so important that we understand that our relationship with Jesus needs to be our number one priority, for this life is temporary and our time is limited.

James 4:14

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 

On Monday night we saw something that never happens, the biggest football game of the week was stopped and postponed on national television. We are a NFL culture. It is the biggest stage and it pulls in a lot of money. But something happened this Monday that shifted everyone’s focus away from THE Game…LIFE.

Damar Hamlin, a 24 year old safety for the Buffalo Bills, after what looked like a routine hit, stood up, began to twitch and grab his chest, and collapsed in the middle of the field. The emergency staff acted swiftly and were able to have an AED attached, performing CPR for almost 9 minutes before stabilizing him enough to go to the hospital. 

Nobody was talking about football. Nobody was talking about Donavan Mitchell making NBA history across the state, scoring 71 points. The broadcast showed the players and coaches from both teams praying, worried, kneeling and hoping for the best. Broadcasters had no words to describe it, one saying, “we are not emotionally equipped to handle this, we can’t talk about football when a player’s life is on the line.”

One sports broadcaster openly admitted that he needed to pray and bowed his head and lead a prayer on national television. 

Something so startling, so upsetting, so much more significant than a game took over the attention of the nation, that is the significance of life. A brutal reminder of our fragility and temporary life. 

Your life is significant because it is a gift God has given you. What you do with your time will determine how you use that gift. Don’t get caught up in playing games and wasting time that life goes by without true meaning.

Jesus tells us that our number one priority needs to be seeking Him, His kingdom and living out kingdom principles (righteousness). Another way to say this is to love and obey God. A faithful life of obedience in the ordinary will lead to a significant life and impact on others. 

Sure we may have some big goals, and some will go on to doing big things. But for you and me, if we learn to prioritize God daily, to learn to love Him more today than I did yesterday. If I learn to Care for others, and treat them as I want to be treated. If I tell others about the goodness of God and the provision of grace found in Christ, then I will see God’s blessing in all areas of my life. Not only will I get Christ, but He will bless me with more than I could even ask or think. 

So this year, start with the big things, learn to prioritize your relationship with Jesus, your Bible, your faith. Allow Him to determine the values you hold to and the use of your time. When you start with the small stuff, you miss the big stuff. When you start with the big stuff, you get the small stuff thrown in!