Getting My Priorities Straight

Recently I have been thinking about priorities and where God should fit in. I mean, I knew that the Bible taught that God should come first in all that we do and that most churches teach that you should "tithe your time" but what does that mean?

I always saw it as meaning that I needed to give God a percentage of all of my time. I don't know about you, but I found that difficult. To always be worried that I wasn't giving God enough? And what is "enough" anyway? I had no idea.

One person would tell me, "All you have to do is dedicate some time to prayer and read your Bible every day," another would say, "No, no, you have to share the gospel with someone to have truly tithed your time," and still another, "Just follow the rules the best you can and you'll be fine."
Okay, now I was really confused! What's the truth? Where should God be on my priority list?

From all the advice that I had been given my list ended up looking something like this:

• God
• Prayer
• Reading the Bible
• Sharing the Gospel
  
• Family
• Friends
• Quiet Time for myself
• Chores at Home
• Work
• Going to Church
• School
• Having Fun
• ...

Now, I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the things on the list. They are all good things and most of them things that I do every day. The problem with the list is that it's set up as a list of expectations. That means that for me this list was something that I lived by. A standard that I had set. When I went to the Bible, however, I found very different results.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So, the Bible says that in ALL things and ALL the time we must give Him the glory. I found myself thinking, "But that's not what everyone else says!" It turns out that the Bible had something to say to that argument too.

Colossians 2:6-8

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Now I was really stumped. Not only was I wrong in my assumptions, but I couldn't use what people had told me as a basis anymore. I had to go to the Bible and come up with a whole new kind of priority list. This is something like what I came up with:



We need to give God everything and more! We can't give Him a portion or even a percentage. If He isn't being glorified in everything that we do then we are falling short of God's command.

Matthew 5:14-16

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

We must be lights to the world and we do that by showing God in our actions. As it says in James 1, "...Faith without works is dead..." You can't be a Christian and NOT show Christ in all your actions!

You need to realize that I'm not perfect or even close. Just because I finally figured out what my priority list should look like doesn't mean I have as easy a time living it out. I still fight against my flesh and the Devil-- whose object in life is to see me fail. Only by the grace of God do I even have a chance. But, thanks to Jesus, I do have the grace of God, and I can do it!!!

In His service~