Priorities
Do
not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, “It’s no
use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’ – Jeremiah 2:25
We think of foreign
gods as being idols cast in gold, in wood, in stone. It’s an Old Testament
thing. It’s ridiculous to think we would ever bow down to a gold calf. Right?
An idol doesn’t have to
be made of gold or shaped like a calf. It doesn’t have to be a statue you bow
to. It can be anything you place at the top of your wish list. It can be
whatever you value most.
Well, family, friends,
church. We know exactly how to answer that question. But look at your heart. What
do you think about the most? What occupies your time? Where does your money go?
What do you talk about?
We all have different
gods that we worship. It could be power or greed. You don’t think that applies
to you? How often do you think about controlling your work environment and
playing “politics” in order to advance your own career? How much effort do you
make to acquire more and more money, well beyond what you actually need?
Some people use their
phones or other devices as their gods. You don’t think it applies to you? How
often do you ignore your spouse, your children, your friends, as you focus on
your phone? I know. You think you’re good at multi-tasking. You aren’t. When
you share a meal with someone and you spend most of the time on the phone, you
have elevated that phone to a god that matters more than the people you are
with.
The question becomes
does it matter more than God? Have you ever made excuses for missing church,
Sunday School or Bible study? What are those excuses? Maybe time is a factor.
Why? I’ll admit it really irritates me when someone says they can’t participate
because they’re too busy but they always talk about watching television or
playing computer games. It’s all about priorities and their priority isn’t God.
The truth is we love
God. We do. But we love other things too. We don’t want to have to choose which
we love more. We’d rather keep trying to balance it all out so we get it all.
But you can’t have it all. God is a jealous God and He demands that He be our
One and Only.
It’s so easy to get
caught up on the outside, isn’t it? It’s easy to focus on the trappings of life
and forget about the living water we need to survive. It’s easy to shift our
priorities and make it all about us and our desires. It’s easy to forget that
we are here to serve and glorify God – not give in to our own selfish desires.
Take a good, hard look
at how you spend your days. How much time do you spend scrolling on Facebook?
How hard is it for you to put your phone away (like in another room) and
actually talk to the people you claim to love so much? Can you let go of office
politics, shove it out of your mind, and maybe instead pray for your
adversaries? Can you be a little more generous with those who don’t have as many
things as you do? Can you be a little less judgmental of people who aren’t like
you?
At the end of the day,
it won’t matter how many promotions you got at work. It won’t matter how often
you went on social media to blast the other political party or other issues of
the day. It won’t matter what your address was or how many clothes your closet
held. It won’t even matter how many gadgets you owned or how fast you could
text.
What matters is how
well you loved. What matters is how well you served God’s people. What matters
is that your life elevate God so that through your words and actions others see
Him in you.
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