First Things First

First Things First

“so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

-Hebrews 9:28

A young boy came to Sunday School late. His teacher knew that he was usually very prompt and asked him if anything was wrong. The boy replied no, that he was going fishing but his dad told him that he needed to go to church. 

The teacher was very impressed and asked the boy if his dad had explained to him why it was more important to go to church than to go fishing. To which the boy replied, "Yes he did, Dad said he didn't have enough bait for both of us".

Sometimes people live their lives struggling to choose Christ day in and day out. Christ is weighed next to events and opportunities of this world, but doesn’t always win. If we are having to choose between Christ and something else in individual decisions everyday, than Christ is obviously not our primary focus, and we are allowing ourselves opportunity to choose something else.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus describes that we should “seek first the kingdom of God” as a description of our predetermined commitment to have a mind after God’s things. Much like Joshua’s challenge to “choose today who you will serve” , we cannot wait until temptations arrive to resolve to righteous lives. 

The following is a good self check for if Christ is the priority in your life:

Am I committed to the activities of study, prayer, service, and worship, then use what remains to meet worldly demands or am I committed to the activities of the world, and fit in Christ as best I can?

I Love YOU,

Jonathan Long