Priorities

I heard a story about a group of four friends that went out deer hunting. They paired off in twos and split up for the day. Later that night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck.

"Where's Larry?" he was asked by someone in the other group.

"Larry had a stroke or something. He's a couple of miles back up the trail."

"Wait! You left Larry laying there, and carried the deer back?"

"Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Larry."

That hunter knew his top priority, and it wasn’t Larry. I wonder, read, what your top priorities are. We have a tendency to stress over things that should not be our top priority, and we often ignore what should be. 

In a very familiar verse, Jesus said to seek “first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).” Jesus was telling the disciples what ought to be their top priority, and that is God’s kingdom and righteousness. In the verses preceding that one, He told them a few things that should not be at the top of their list, namely what they would eat, drink, and wear. This is admittedly difficult because those are crucial items—it isn’t like Jesus said not to stress over mansions and filet mignon. We cannot survive without food and water, and we probably would not want to survive without clothing, and yet Jesus reminded us that these are only temporary, and therefore, of lesser importance than those things which are eternal. Our Heavenly Father knows our material needs, and we need to trust—not stress—that He will supply our needs according to His riches in glory. 

Our top priority, then, should be to live in light of God’s kingdom. His kingdom will one day come to earth and be fully realized in the Millennial Kingdom, but until then, when we live by His standard of righteousness we are bringing a glimpse of His kingdom to earth now. When we put others before ourselves and love our neighbor, we are giving people a foretaste of when Jesus comes to make all things right. 

When we make righteous living our top priority then “all these things will be added” to us. The “all these things,” in context, refers back to what we eat, drink, and wear. In other words, if we live for Jesus above anything else, He will take care of the temporary and the eternal; if we focus on the temporary, we may miss out on eternal blessings.