“Wish I had 25 hours per day.” “Yea,” I responded, “but the problem is that then you would need 26 hours per day.” Everybody chuckled. God created time, as we know it and has given an equal amount to every person on earth. The wealthiest people in the world have the same amount of time as you do. The great preachers and prolific Christian writers have only twenty-four hours per day as we all do. Yet more than any other excuse believers give for not spending time with God reading the Word and praying, is “I don’t have enough time. I just can’t seem to fit God into my schedule.” However, the problem isn’t time.
The problem is priorities or what we regard as important. Priorities are a mental list ranking what we value the most down to the least. When someone says they can’t fit God into their schedule, they speak volumes about where God is on their list. Jesus made our priority ranking clear. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness (Mat 6:33). The context of this command is “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing‘ (Mat 6:31)? If we put Him first, Jesus promised . . . all these things will be added to you (v33). These things include the essentials of life—what we eat, drink, and wear. You will discover when God is not first, you will spend more time trying to maintain the essentials. Having our priorities out of order is like buttoning our shirt or coat wrong. If the first button is out of order, all the others will be misplaced. In contrast, if the first button is in the button hole it was designed for, then the rest will be in their appropriate places.
In graduate school, a professor required us to keep a record of every activity we did for a week and the amount of time spent carrying it out. It was an eye opener for the entire class on how much time we spent on non-essential activities as watching TV, talking with friends, playing or viewing sports, worrying, etc. Christians struggling with God’s priorities versus theirs should keep a record for a week. People typically think the solution for spending time with the Lord is getting up earlier. A more practical solution is giving up some non-essential or secondary activity.
Priorities involve far more than chronological time. Jesus compared His invitation to the Kingdom of God to a man giving a big dinner, and inviting people but their priorities were incorrect (Lk 14:16-20). One man excused himself because he had bought a piece of land and needed to go look at it. A second invitation went to a man who bought five yoke of oxen, and insisted he must try them out. The last one excused himself because he had just got married. Later in the same discourse using hyperbole, Jesus said, 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 (Luk 14:26). Christ did not mean we should stop caring for our family. He was teaching that we are to put Him first in our lives. The word for hate can also be translated less affection, love less, or esteem less. Love of anything or anyone in this life should pale in comparison to our love for Christ.
The book of Haggai is a record of the Jews who were living with misplaced priorities. After seventy years in exile in Babylon, Israel was allowed to return to their land. Their first task in Jerusalem was rebuilding Solomon’s temple which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed seventy years prior. After clearing the debris and attempting to lay the foundation they gave up because of threats from the Samaritans. Instead, they began working on their homes, planting crops, reestablishing commerce. It appeared life was back to normal. Yet, God’s house still lay in ruins. Sixteen years later God sent Haggai to confront them about their excuses for why the Temple still lay in ruins. Haggai’s message for the people, get your priorities in order and rebuild the temple.
The Lord through Haggai told Israel the consequences they were suffering because of their incorrect priorities. They lived active lives but were unsatisfied because they weren’t experiencing God’s blessings. Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands (Hag 1:5, 6, 11).
Although we are not building a literal temple of wood and stone, we are building our spiritual houses because now we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. This cannot be a secondary activity we do when we feel we have some extra time. Satan is a master at stealing our time. Seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness must be first on our list of priorities and what we value most. If we live our life in light of eternity, all the secondary things we do, won’t seem so important.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Jesus made priorities quite clear—seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.