Does God Have Priorities?

We love priorities.  What we think is the most important goes on the top of our list, and then we set out to accomplish those things. Prioritizing is a good thing for most of us, because it helps us to manage our time and resources for the things that really count. When someone we know gets their priorities out of wack, we say,"they just have their priorities all messed up."  Counselors often help people prioritize their lives so more control is maintained in a person's life. So if priorities are a good thing, does God have priorities? 

I think He does, because Jesus said this in Matthew 22:

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  37And 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.  38This is the great and first commandment.  39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Loving God and others is a priority with God, and it can never be improved upon. Love is the utlimate form of expression between two people, and it is the act of love that makes God real. Love is Gods priority, in fact Jesus said that people would know His disciples by the way we have love for one another. As we disect love, we see that love has to have action to it in order for love to be have an impact.  The Apostle James explains this when he says in James 2:

15If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,  16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good  is that?  17So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Love is an action word, and that action has concern for others.  God does have priorities.

The ultimate expression of love is the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we take the advise of James, and make sure our prioirties are based upon living out love everyday with those around us, then sharing the love of God through the message of the cross is clearly a priority with God.  What we often forget is that when a person dies, they have only two options where they will spend eternity, either with God or without Him. 

Heaven is always the goal of most people, hell is never on anyone's list of priorities, unless you're drunk, and don't have any cognitive resources left. Heaven is the ultimate expression of love from a creator/redeemer who gave His life to salvage our souls from a Godless eternity. So when I look at the cross, I see it as God's prioirty. It is a priority of love that has pursued us, so that an eternity could be the best it possibliy could be by living with Him.

Spend some time today thinking about how God has pursued you, making you a priority so that you would find Him in salvation, God's highest call of relationship.

Keeping it honest and truthful...K

Talent comes in all sizes and ages, and this eight year old has her priorites in the right place, as she uses her talent to sing for God.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RhemaMarvanne?v=vsVvkrSkI18&feature=pyv&ad=7326733930&kw=jesus