Prioritize love, and trust God

Matthew 6:24-33
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, What you will eat of drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?”, or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

There’s no doubt about it, God places the highest priority on our love for him. In day two of the book he goes into the priority of our relationships. Verse 33 of Matthew 6 says “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” If we give God the priority in our lives, we will have what we need.

In this world, with the economy in an uproar, and unemployment at very high level, it’s very easy to place a high importance on getting a job so you can make money for food, clothes, and shelter. This is important, but God knows what we need and, if we make him our priority, we will have what we need. That doesn’t mean we go to sleep, and wake up with our daily needs waiting at our feet. By placing him first, he will send us opportunities that will give us the money we need. We just have to listen to him.

We need to think in the long term. When we worry about money, food, clothes, and shelter, that worry can turn into panic, and that panic can change our priority from God to money. The saying, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a meal; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” Is very true. By worrying, people are looking for the fastest way to get something. They expect the government to give them handouts, but they don’t think that they are tapping into a limited resource. They will never accept the responsibility for their own future, and when the government stops giving them what they want, they will end up with nothing.

What God offers is long term. All we have to do is love him first and trust that he will supply us with what we need. He will show us job opportunities that may not be fortune 500, but they will give us what we need.

Tom Holladay mentioned a quote, “God does not demand of me that I accomplish great things. He does demand of me that I strive for excellence in my relationships.” What you do in your life is not important. What is important is that you love God first, and trust him to know what’s best for your life.

Your definition of success will determine your life’s priorities. There are three priorities, and depending on where each one falls will give you how much success you will have. The three priorities are God, man, myself.

I will go into these later. For now, I want to leave you with this thought. “Your definition of success will determine your life’s priorities.”

Challenge: Write down the quote that Tom Holladay mentioned, “God does not demand of me that I accomplish great things. He does demand of me that I strive for excellence in my relationships.” Put it in a highly visible place.

Enjoy,
Allen