Faith Words: First Place

It's too much!
Work here, work there!
Volunteer here, volunteer there!
Study this, study that!
Clean inside, clean outside!
It's always something and it never stops.

What consumes your time, your energies?  How do you set your priorities?  Does your to-do list include solitude?  Do you ever schedule in rest?  (I don't mean vacation.  Often vacations are just as exhausting as work.)  Do you take the Lord's command to keep the Sabbath seriously?

These are questions I ask myself.  I know what I want the answers to be, but I also know what the answers are.  And those answers say so much about who or what is actually Lord of my life.

Work is necessary and can be productive.  Volunteering is selfless and rewarding.  Study reinforces beliefs and challenges them as well.  Cleaning brings order to chaos and clears the mind while clearing the clutter.  But everything must be kept in perspective.

God does not share His throne with the trappings of my life.  Anything I put in His place is idolatry.  The Lord should come first.  He deserves to come first.  He demands it.  He's earned it.

When planning what's next and trying to fit it all in, my to-do list must begin with God.

Putting Him first,

Patrice

Exodus 20:1-6 NIV

1 And God spoke all these words:

2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 You shall have no other gods before me.

4 You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.