Help Me Prioritize

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel,

and his redeemer the LORD of hosts;

I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

--Isaiah 44:6

Zaria had a million and one things to do. She had a birthday party to plan for her daughter, a husband to cater to, a job that demanded her time and expertise, a house to clean, bills to pay, and church meetings to attend. At the end of the week, she found herself engulfed in her daily activities, but by the time Sunday came, well she was just plum tired. She figured if anyone understood, it would be God, after all she didn’t have to hear God complain in her ear at night or whine to her about being hungry throughout the day. The church didn’t need her presence, besides she could pray at home or so she thought, until the phone rang and she was interrupted yet again from talking to God. To Zaria, her priorities were in order, weren’t they?

If Zaria is honest her priorities couldn’t be further from order, in fact they were in complete disarray! Why? Well because she just didn’t put God first even if she meant to with the best of intentions. Many of us fall prey to the same thing without realizing it. We get so busy and preoccupied with life as we know it that we forget who and what matters most: God and developing a relationship with Him. When we get like this, we get sidetracked and our vision becomes quite blurry.

God knew there would be times when we would lose focus and so He reminds us in His word that He is the first and the last, and that besides Him there is no other god. In other words God wants us to know that the true priority of life is Him and fostering a relationship with Him. When God is first, we don’t schedule Him around life, but we schedule life around Him so that He remains at the very core of everything we do. When God is last that means we recognize that in as much as it all starts with Him, it must also end with Him; we must keep the end in mind with Him being the prize.

When we think like this, our days as hectic as they may still seem, become less important as we realize that all that we do has no meaning without God being at the very center of our lives. Today let us remember that while life is eventful and full of tasks and assignments, no assignment is greater than fostering a relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior each and every day. When we recognize this, we will not let a day go by where we don’t recognize Him as the first and the last. So if we’ve fallen short from making God a priority let us ask Him to help us prioritize today!

This must be our priority: God and God alone!