Where Do Your Priorities Lie?

It’s not uncommon for us to talk about having our priorities established in the right order or way.

So let me ask you this: where does Jesus rank in your priorities? Is He the highest in your list, the middle, the bottom, or not even on it?

Is Jesus your first love, or do you live the world more?

Do you make time in your life for Him? Do you dedicate time each day to read His word and to spend time with Him in prayer, or do you only give Him a couple of hours one day a week?

Do you spend good times with Him as well as the bad times? Do you praise Him and give thanks to Him when things are going well, or is the only time He hears from you is when things are going badly in your life?

Is He in the front of your mind, or is He an afterthought?

Do you take time to listen to His instruction and guidance for your life? Do you even seek it? Do you listen for His voice?

Jesus died on the cross for us, because of His great love, grace, compassion, and mercy. He endured a brutal and horrific death for us because there was no other way for us to be saved from damnation and sin. He is worthy of our time, focus, attention, love, obedience, devotion, and our worship. He gave everything for us, and quite frankly none of us are worthy of Him. He deserves so much better than what He receives from us.

We need Jesus, but He doesn’t need us. That is how special and wonderful the gift of salvation that is offered to us through the blood of Jesus is.

Isaiah 48:8 ESV

8 I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

Matthew 22:35-37 ESV

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Revelation 2:4 ESV

4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Matthew 10:37-38 ESV

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

John 12:25 ESV

25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Luke 14:26-27 ESV

26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

(NOTE: In this context he doesn’t truly mean hatred. He means that you should prefer Him over your family and your own life.)

James 4:4 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.