Life's Priorities

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. -Matthew 6:33

In deciding my life's priorities, I should keep three things in mind - my relationship to God, my relationship to other people, and my relationship to myself.

Priority 1: Glorifying God. . . (Our) chief purpose is to know God and to glorify Him forever. The first commandment says, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). God should come first in everything. This does not mean our faith should be fanatical pursuit of heaven to the detriment of everything else in the world. But the first question we should always ask is, Does this glorify God? If it doesn't glorify God, don't do it.

Priority 2: Loving others. God cares for the world so much that he gave His only Son to save it (John 3:16). Because of this, we can serve Him by caring for the people around us. This means living the life of Christ. How do we do that? By being gentle, humble, kind, and forgiving (Colossians 3:12-17).

 Priority 3: Living in the light. Paul said, "Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, . . . (and) let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:15, 16). We should choose activities that enable us to be conscious of God all the time. We don't have to walk around with our hands folded. But we should worship God on Sunday and carry the experience with us into Monday.

In deciding what to do. . .these three priorities should guide us. But we have to use our judgment, which we can do through education, practice, and experience. Then, like Jesus, we will grow in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52).

-From "Deciding Life's Priorities" by Oswald Hoffman in Practical Christianity); part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado

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