Priorities

Every once in awhile, it’s good to take a step back and remember your basic priorities as a Christian. I realize the word priorities sounds a bit like your last work evaluation. But in this scenario, I don’t want you to think about your job, I want you to think about your relationship with God and with others.

Reading for today: Colossians 1:9-14, 28-29

Your Christian priorities can basically be broken down into two major areas. The first is our priority towards God. The second is our priority towards others. According to Colossians, our priority towards God is to, first of all, know him and his forgiveness, then to walk in a manner worthy of the redemption he offers. All this we practice within an attitude of thanksgiving.

Our second priority is towards others. We make it our priority to teach others, pray for others, and to ask God for strength, endurance, and patience. All this we practice within an attitude of joy.

But there is also a third priority. And that is the priority that God has placed on himself towards us. None of the above mentioned “priorities” can occur without God’s promise to help. He has qualified us. He has delivered us. He has transferred us out of darkness and into the kingdom of light. And in verse 29, Paul says that as he struggles through his priorities, he does so with God’s “energy that powerfully works within” him.

When all three priorities are acting together, the Christian life wonderfully forms an avenue for the Trinity. Which looks like this: as we grow in our knowledge of God the Father, we accept the forgiveness of Jesus the Son who redeemed us. Then by his Holy Spirit, we are called back to God to be catalysts of change in the lives of those around us.

Dear God, Please help us to get back to basics. Help us to love you and to love others. Amen.

Let’s orientate ourselves back to basic priorities for our Christian walk.

Day 2 – Luke 10:25-37

Day 3 – Mark 12:28-34; Deuteronomy 6:5

Day 4 – Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-21

Day 5 – Philippians 1:19-30

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Richly Blessed

Reading for today: Mark 10:17-27

Office cleaned and trash taken out every night, except last night it was left. Rotisserie chicken on the warming cart, but today they’re all out. It’s your birthday, but this year she forgot to send you a card. An important meeting at work, but a phone call from school reports a child with a fever who needs you.

When you experience a small loss or disturbance (emphasis on the word small) in the things you’ve come to expect, what is your typical response? Is it frustration? Is it anger? Is it pouting? If so, consider taking these inevitable aggravations and using them as opportunities for gratitude.

These small deviations in our regularly scheduled lives are pivotal moments where we can either feel entitled to what was lost. Or we can use the opportunity to recognize a blessing in our lives.

My husband has the habit of making coffee every morning. One morning last week, he didn’t. And I am ashamed to say that I immediately felt frustrated. But as soon as I had that horrible feeling of entitlement, another, more appropriate feeling took its place – gratitude.

Gratitude for a husband who cares for me. Gratitude for a coffee maker and hot coffee. Gratitude for able hands. Gratitude for a life where I am so blessed that the only thing I have to complain about on a Tuesday morning is a lack of hot coffee.

Don’t ever let the abundance of your simple blessings become a source of false entitlement. The moment you begin to feel entitled to your blessings, is the moment you have stopped serving God and have begun to serve yourself.

Your blessings, even the smallest ones, are from God and are to be used for God, not simply for yourself. God gives you his blessings to bless you, yes! But he also gives you blessings to be used to serve him and those he has placed around you. Gratitude, then, is the necessary first step in that process of receiving and using God’s blessings.

Dear God, I have completely taken for granted even my smallest blessings. Give me eyes to see your blessings and wisdom to know how to use them for your glory. I am so unbelievably blessed by you. Make me grateful. Amen.

This week, count your blessings – at least 5 a day. After each blessing counted, think of a possible way to spread that blessing out to someone else.

Further readings on blessings.

Day 2 – Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 31:19; Malachi 3:10

Day 3 – James 1:14-17

Day 4 – Jeremiah 17:7-8; 1 Peter 3:8-9

Day 5 – Psalm 103

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Runner’s Guide

Reading for today: Hebrews 12:1-11

The longest race I’ve ever run is a 25K, that’s about 15 ½ miles. When you are running a race that long, it is never called the “Fun Run” or the “Turkey Trot”, because it is not fun and you are not trotting. On the contrary, running a race that long, even for the seasoned runner, is very difficult and requires months of training.

But for most people who have accomplished a race of that magnitude, they know that the pain and preparation were worth it. Not only do they feel the immediate “runner’s high” (the flood of endorphins into the brain, causing feelings of euphoria*), but they also enjoy a long-lasting sense of pride in their accomplishment.

The author of Hebrews describes the Christian life as a long-distance race.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who or the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” ~Hebrews 12:1-2

by Runner’s World

That very long-distance sentence is packed with training tips for life.

1. Be encouraged because we are not alone in this race. We are surrounded by witnesses and fellow runners.
2. Sin and distractions slows us down. Get rid of them.
3. We are to run the race marked out for us. Not any other route.
4. Jesus is the rabbit, the pacesetter, and the one we follow. He is the one we look to for guidance because he is the one who calls us to run this race. He knows the route and he will lead us the whole way.
5. Jesus knows the joy or the euphoria waiting at the end because he has already run the race perfectly.

Racing is about convincing your body to do something that will hurt. Why? Because you know that in the end, it will be amazing. Likewise, walking with faith through this life requires discipline and sometimes pain, but it is ultimately for good, preparing us for eternal life.

Dear Jesus, Help us to run the race you have set before us. Lead us. Help us not to get lost, not to get sidetracked. Lead us to the finish line, which sometimes seems so far away. Amen.

Readings for this week:

Day 2 – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Day 3 – Philippians 3:8-14; 4:13

Day 4 – Proverbs 4:11-18

Day 5 – 2 Timothy 4:6-8

 

 

*Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/health/nutrition/27best.html?_r=0 on April 10, 2016

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My Comfort Zone

Reading for today: Matthew 28:1-20

I was nine-years-old. I was looking forward to unlimited pancakes and wearing my brand-new Easter dress. But nothing can spoil an Easter Sunday pancake stack like the chicken pox.

Completely uncomfortable, I spent the morning quarantined in the church office. The only person who saw my new dress was the poor, immune soul who quickly dropped off an anticlimactic, styrofoam plate of cold pancakes.

I could faintly hear happy voices declaring, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” Then the hymn, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, lifted up out of the old electric organ. Just a hallway down from the celebration though, little third-grade me felt only boredom, disappointment, and little red irritations.

Easter is supposed to be the great victory, the great celebration of new life through Christ’s death and resurrection. Easter is the culminating event of the church year. It’s bigger than Christmas. He is risen! …But so what?

It’s hard to feel celebratory when you have the chicken pox. It’s hard to feel festive when you’re sick. Or when your mother has cancer. Or when your spouse has hurt you, again. Or when your coworker has died. Or when you deal with chronic pain. Or when you realize your child has special needs. Or when you live in the fear of terrorism. Or when you’re hungry, persecuted, imprisoned, lonely, in need of help, anxious, lost, broken, or dwelling in deep darkness.

He is risen! So what? What does this mean for us right now?

First of all, Jesus’ death and resurrection was a part of God’s plan. God’s plan to save us from sin and every uncomfortable thing mentioned above. Likewise, Jesus coming again one day to establish the new heaven and the new earth is also a part of that redemptive plan.

But, more to the question – so what? This tough, in-between time is also part of the plan. Not because God wants us to suffer a bit longer, but because he is in the business of creating and redeeming. He is creating the new heavens and the new earth, creating clean hearts. He is creating new life within us and is redeeming creation, his creation, back to himself. No one knows when this in-between time will be over. But we’ve been promised it will end and we will have comfort in the meantime.

Comfort in the original Latin means, “with strength.” God’s comfort does not mean we will always be comfortable. Free from pain or anxiety or constraint. Instead, God’s comfort is his strength freely given to help us deal with everything uncomfortable in this world.

You see, we were not created for this broken, uncomfortable world and we desperately need God’s strength to endure it. So when we cry out “He is risen!” it is because we know the same strength that brought Jesus back to life is the very strength that gives us comfort as we wait for his return. He is risen! And he is coming again! Allelujah!

Dear God, Thank you for your comfort and your strength. I need your comfort as I struggle with _________________________. Please help me to bring comfort and strength to others in my life. Amen.

God has promised his comfort. Ask for it.

Day 2 – Isaiah 40:1-5; 27-31

Day 3 – Psalm 23

Day 4 – 2 Corinthians 1:3-10

Day 5 – 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17; John 16:32-33

*Special thanks to Pastor Pat Simmons. Your sermon this past Sunday morning wrote this devotional.

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