SolaFire

We are pretty linear creatures. In particular, those of us who live in the 21st century think of priorities only as things that need to be done first. This is because we view life as a series of events, like installments in a soap opera or episodes of a TV show. Order in our lives means sequencing. Our priorities become the things at the top of our to-do list.

Like “make coffee.”

Everything else follows after that in time, so that is what makes it a priority over other things.

Like “go to work.” Or “pick up paycheck.” Or “deposit paycheck in bank.” Or “buy coffee for tomorrow.”

Because that is our perspective, we think of ourselves as following a sort of checklist. A successful life based on our priorities means getting our checklist completed. At some point, we think we can mark our “priority items” as “DONE.”

But that is self-deception and perhaps even self-defeating.

Viewing priorities as an ever-changing list of items that require our effort will mean we are always pursuing High-ranking ACTIVITIES that vary with our circumstances rather than high- ranking PRINCIPLES that do not.

It is better to think of priorities as having primacy in importance rather than as things that have primacy in time or sequence.

Priorities, particularly when they are established by God, are better thought of as things that need to be done CONSTANTLY. By adopting that view, we will establish the foundations on which all other activities are always built, regardless of circumstances. So, what might they be?

ALWAYS seek to do good to one another and to everyone (1 The. 5:15)

Let your speech ALWAYS be gracious (Col 4:6)

give thanks ALWAYS to God (Eph 5:20)

Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS (Phil 4:4, 1 The. 5:16)

ALWAYS be sober-minded (2 Tim 4:5)

ALWAYS be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)

Godly priorities are never “DONE,” rather they are always BEING DONE.

The ability to keep doing them is a gift from God, as His Holy Spirit produces its fruit in us of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). There is no law limiting or restricting these. They are works of grace that are never finished.

They will not be marked “DONE” for His grace will never end.

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Human thinking makes God’s grace out to be a puny thing.

God’s gracious forgiveness seems worthless to each of us when we do not know Christ. “After all,” each of us reasons, “I am already a pretty good person. If God is at all perceptive, He should be yearning for the chance to jump down from Heaven to love and accept me, just as I am. Indeed, if God does not do so, the fault lies with God’s inability to perceive my obvious virtue, not my own lack of it.”

Then we are  shown the truth of out own sinfulness and lack of merit before God. We reluctantly admit to needing God’s forgiveness after all. We come to seeing this need as satisfied only in what God can do and what He will do entirely apart from our efforts or merit. At this point, our natural reaction is to futher diminish God’s grace in forgiveness. What comes freely, we tend to regard lightly.

Life is a gift to each of us. There is no person alive who did anything to earn his own birth or bring it about. No one decided to be born. Not a one of us created the circumstances of his own conception or convinced his mother to carry him to term. Life was a gift that cost each of us nothing. Yet, even the dullest of us would admit that life is precious.

God’s grace is likewise a gift that none of us can earn or bring about. We cannot take it; by definition it is given. We cannot create the circumstances for it to be bestowed, for indeed the Giver decides that. God declares “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:15). Even so, it is precious and beyond value.

Let us guard against any thought or inclination that takes grace for granted or esteems it as meager. Such concepts will intrude upon our understanding sooner or later, usually subtly and quietly. We must be vigilant in our thought and speech to always regard God’s grace as a spectacular and marvelous aspect of His character. It is clear that He does:

But God, being rich in mercy,  because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,  made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—   and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable  riches of his grace in  kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-7, ESV)

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