Hierarchy Of Priorities

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

"Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." (In reference to the people who tested God in the wilderness)
1 Corinthians 10:11&12

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."
Hebrews 4:1

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
Revelation 2:2-7

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
John 15:5

"And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live."
Luke 10:25-28

Priorities...everyone has to have them if their life is going to function properly. All successful people adhere to a list of priorities. For instance, police officers have a list of priorities when dealing with their day-to-day duties. If you are a police officer and you catch someone speeding and then hear on your radio a serial killer was just spotted in the area, I have an idea you are going to now pursue the serial killer and forget about the ticket. One priority overshadowed another. Well it appears it is not so different for Christians. I have seen Christians abandon the most important of priorities in the name of "reaching out" to others and then themselves eventually doing and saying what the people who do not know God do and say. I was one of those Christians until God graced me with teaching me how to truly fear Him and that fear propelling into love. Biblically speaking what does it appear our main priorities are? I see us struggling all the time with priorities and unfortuneatly the consequences can at times be severe. Let's see what the Word of God says our most important priorities are.

James gives us two ingredients in having a healthy relationship with God. First he lists to comfort and attend to the needy, particularly widows and orphans. The second thing he lists is to keep oneself from being stained by the world. I don't think his intentions were listing them in order, because it appears our first priority to God is to keep ourselves pure and unstained. The reason I say this is because to the church at Ephesus Jesus said "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent." Let's notice that despite all the hard work Jesus commended them for He still had something against them, they had abandoned their first love. That first love was Him and in abandoning Him they were beginning to stain themselves and Jesus had to put a quick stop to this through John. They apparently forgot they were working for Jesus. Religion had crept in it appears and Jesus told them to repent of this before He removed their lampstand. Jesus says REMEMBER FROM WHERE YOU HAVE FALLEN; REPENT AND DO THE FIRST WORKS. So we see they lost a sense of priority probably in the area of their daily disciplines (i.e. prayer) and to neglect this is to not put on our spiritual armor and to not put on our spiritual armor is to subject ourselves to Satan's fiery darts and to subject ourselves to Satan's fiery darts is to allow a strong, negative influence that subtly leads us astray. When we lose focus of priorities we get reprimanded for our benefit. Thank God for His discipline! For without it we could not shar in His holiness!

Now in Luke, Jesus tells the lawyer that he is right in his answering of how one inherits eternal life. The lawyer tempting Him said, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." So we see our first priority is to love the Lord our God with all our soul, strength, and mind; AND to love thy neighbor as thyself. So we see we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are supposed to work for Him and glorify Him in that manner! But first we must love HIM with all our beings. This means communing with Him in prayer and notice when we do this we begin to love people a whole lot more! When we honor God in drawing closer to Him all of the other things will begin to fall into place! Our desire will be for His work from our hearts because we are communing with Him and that is what appears this church in Revelation had lacked in. But remember Jesus said in John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." We must ABIDE IN HIM, and in order to abide in Him we have to CLEANSE OURSELVES with His provided sacrifice on Calvary, then our actions for him will be anointed, done in the Spirit where there is power!

I remember there was a point in my life where I had to settle down and remember that yes, Jesus died for all so they could come to Him, but let me never get so caught up in "works" that I forget He also died for me to COMMUNE WITH ME! That is God's desire! Sometimes we "forget" with how we conduct our lives, that God died for us and wants us to abide in Him! If I am getting drunk, watching things I shouldn't watch, agreeing with things I shouldn't agree with, not seeking Him and loving Him, I may be indicating to myself that I have become religious and am leaving my first love! Don't sacrifice your integrity in the name of "reaching out"! The biggest and best way to reach out is to show people that Jesus power is genuinely active in you not having to partake in certain things for your fulfillment! "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall!" Remember, you do not have to be in active agreement with the world in order to reach them! Let us not defile ourselves we have Jesus Christ! Let us strive for the completeness God is calling us to!

Thank you Lord for all you have given and all you have done! I pray God that we will be a people able to hear, "Well done Thou good and faithful servant!". I pray this over myself, my family, and all your saints! We love you Jesus, let us know when we are breaking your heart! Discipline us Lord we pray! In the precious name of Jesus we pray! Amen!
With love brothers and sisters!
Sincerely,
Chris Goff