by Betty Miller
In our high-tech age, we are bombarded from every quarter to give our attention to something. Everyone has a message or a product they are promoting, and many of them are good and beneficial to humanity. However, one of the things I found myself praying about over the year-end holidays was for the Lord to show me my priorities, as I only have so much time and energy. I want to stay focused on the things the Lord feels are the most important things for me to accomplish at this particular time in my life.
What led me to pray this prayer was that my husband and I took a short sabbatical between Christmas and New Year’s this year and I faced the dilemma as to what I should do with this time. My “Things To Do” list was quite lengthy and included personal, business and ministry projects that were all screaming for my attention. Since I wear a number of hats, (as I am sure many of you also do), it is not always easy to know which thing is the most important for me to do at any particular time.
I found the list of priorities in the Bible: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
The Lord has my heart, soul and mind, as that commitment was made long ago; but how can I love Him more with all of my strength? As Christians, we must all give an account of how we spend our time and energy, as well as our money. According to the above verse, God comes first above all others, which means I need to first give Him my time in prayer, meditation and the reading of the Word. As I do this, He will lead me by the Spirit as to what I am to do daily, and I will then know how to love others properly. This also means that I must give him the first-fruits of my money, since money represents the energy and time we spend in labor (our strength).