Creating priorities helps to discover what is most important. Life is full of activities and our minds are full of ideas. It can be really easy to focus all of your energy and attention on the secondary things and neglect the primary things. Meaning it’s possible to live a busy life but never live out your purpose and potential.
It’s easy to have ideas but never take time to turn them into realities. Our daily activities create habits and habits govern our decisions and activities that we participate in. Defining priorities can help to create a plan for action that will yield the results you actually want. All you need to know is, what you actually want.
What you actually want is found and realized inside of true identity, purpose and vision. Jesus talked about priorities in Matthew 6:25-34,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
This passage is interesting because Jesus rattles off this list of basic necessities and calls them secondary things. A necessity by definition is something you need, which is why Jesus said, “and your heavenly Father knows you need them.” He continues, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Jesus says that the secondary things are worked out inside the primary things. What are the primary things? Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. What does that mean? That, my good peoples is a good question.
Seek: means to learn, study, explore and understand
First: speaks of highest priority of life, not time of day
His Kingdom: this is the government of God. In a kingdom the king is the government and the government is the king. Meaning if you understand the kingdom, you understand the king and his will.
His Righteousness: is a legal term meaning you have right standing with the king. And in this kingdom, gaining righteousness brings about your adoption to sonship, your citizenship, and with your citizenship all the rights and privileges of the government you now belong to.
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness could read like this: learn, study, explore and understand as the highest priority of life, who God really is and who you really are in him.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes. We are talking about priorities. Understanding priorities and managing your time and energy based upon them will create a life lived on purpose based off of the truth.
Success is predictable and so is failure. The daily decisions we make determine where we end up. The right priorities produce a life of function and the realization of your potential.