“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
I suspect a great many of us struggle with keeping our priorities straight. Not so much in terms of understanding what those priorities are as much as keeping focused upon those things.
Life has a way of pulling us off course. And when I say “life” I really mean the devil. He knows that busyness and distraction are two of his most effective tools.
From the moment we come of age and are able to understand what God asks of us, he strives to keeps us busy and away from our true purpose.
When we are young our time is filled with friends, school activities, sports, clubs and homework. Lots of homework.
When we finally graduate and enter the job market, we busy ourselves with advancing in our career.
When we marry and have children, we busy ourselves with our kids’ activities and events. They provide us with an endless stream of ball games and concerts, theater productions and recitals which we feel cannot be missed.
Then when the kids are grown and gone life seems to turn to other things — woodworking, gardening, pets, grandkids, our favorite team.
There’s always something.
The devil knows how to keep us busy. And he works hard to keep us busy throughout our lives in order to keep us from doing the things which most of us would agree are the most important things in life.
Someone says, “Like what?"
Like finding salvation in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).
Like using our talents in service to God (Rom. 12:6-8).
Like helping those who are in need (Jas. 1:27, Prov. 14:31).
Like sharing our faith with someone who is lost (1 Pet. 3:15).
I believe God grants us opportunities each day to do those things (cf. Gal. 6:10, Eph. 5:16).
Yet, Satan knows that if he can keep us busy enough, long enough, those opportunities will fly right by us.
There’s always something which seems urgent and demands our attention.
Now, I do believe there is a sense in which “every emergency demands urgency”. The problem is that we treat everything like it’s an emergency. We’re always responding to what is urgent, to what demands our attention, rather than giving our time and attention to those things that are truly important.
Folks, our time here is brief.
As James says we are “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (1:4).
The Psalmist says we are “a wind that passes and comes not again” (Psa. 78:39).
This is why Jesus warns us in John 9:4 — “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”
The night is coming.
While we live, while there is still breath in our lungs, we have time to love the people in our life. I mean really love them. We have time to serve God with our whole heart and serve the people in this world in His name. While we’re here there’s still time to talk to that friend or coworker or family member about Christ.
But the night is coming. And when it comes time will have run out.
My prayer is like that of Moses as recorded in Psalm 90:9-12 —
“For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. {10} The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. {11} Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? {12} So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
“Teach us to number our days,” he says. Which is to say, help us make the most of our time here.
To that I say, “Amen. Amen, Lord.”