Managing our priorities
Paul tells us “I know how to live on
almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every
situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:12-13).
God modeled that in the way he came to earth, “though he was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2
Corinthians 8:9)
“Man does not live by bread alone” isn’t saying bread is not
important—in fact, God provided it in manna and in the feeding of the 5000.
It’s just saying that bread alone, while necessary, is not enough. “The love of
money is the root of all evil” isn’t saying that money is evil. It’s saying the
love of money—turning money into an
idol is. Both are about good things becoming over-prioritized and idols on
their own (disordered loves) not that they aren’t valuable and blessings from
God to be enjoyed and appreciated. We must always give, and use them for, the
glory to God and never think of them as our own (it’s easy to fail at that).
Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man who used his wealth (and perhaps his
influence in getting the body) to bury Jesus on Good Friday. Mary used
expensive nard to anoint Jesus. Joanna and Susanna supported the disciples “out
of their own means.” Jesus attended dinners in his honor, accepting anointing
and food without discussion, saying “the poor will be with you always”
Again, gifts from God are all around us, for which we should
give thanks and praise. We just need to be sure not to cherish or cling to
them, because they can easily become idols if we are not careful—distracting
proxies from the real good, which is God, who should be our focus and first
love. If we aren’t careful, we can easily end up praising God for the good
things that come from him instead of for himself, whether good things come or
not (think of Job, who blesses God in good and in hardship, and Jesus at
multiple points in the Passion). This is related to the discussion below on the
attributes of Jesus with which people might engage over time. All of this is
also related to how we love our families, and our neighbors—whoever they
are—and ordering our loves appropriately.
So when you describe your work or successes you need to be clear that you are taking joy in what God is doing through/with you so it doesn’t sound like you are taking pride for yourself. Many athletes—particularly football players, I think—do that often. A nice example of keeping this in focus is the video:
Dear softball,
You’re not the most important thing in my life.
Love,
Grace Lyons (3x national champion in Division 1 softball)
When striving to have your words and
life channel the Holy Spirit within you, you will constantly be amazed at the
results. It is right to be amazed, but again, be careful not to begin to take
credit for it yourself (which Nebuchadnezzar did) or be seen to be doing that
by others (which will look like pride)—be careful always to give the glory to
God for what you are able to do in your life.
Jesus surprised his hearers by telling them “Truly I tell
you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven,” since
the common belief was that being wealthy meant you were in favor with God—a
sort of ancient “prosperity gospel.” While I have expressed that things seem to
go better in my life when I follow the guidance of the Spirit, as I am able to
discern it, that is no guarantee that things will go well and, again, it comes
with temptation. The reason the rich may have the hardest time keeping faith in
God/getting to heaven is because it’s easy for them to be prideful and hard not
to take credit for their success instead of giving it to God. An amazing thing
about David is that, for all of his success, he always (in good times and bad)
gave glory to God and trusted Him for whatever came next. A possible exception
was when he ordered a census to figure out his military strength and plan for
himself —and he and Israel suffered for that decision.
Again, we must be careful not to idolize people or things,
but to be thankful for them.
It’s easy and perhaps natural when seeing the beauty of the
natural world or the intricacies of science to be struck with awe and filled
with praise and thanks to God the Creator, though it’s possible to worship
those things as idols. It seems easy to me, when admiring the beauty of my wife
or of a newborn child to escalate the appreciation to adoration, effectively
idolizing the person. That seems bad, and even dangerous, for both me and them.
To love them is natural but to idolize them puts focus on the wrong place. Like
remembering to thank and praise God for your gifts instead of taking self-pride
in them, focusing praise and thanks to God for the beauty and gift of loved
ones instead of idolizing them is critical in directing the awe appropriately
and keeping a good thing from leading you astray. The focus and thanks always
need to be towards God, who is eternal and perfect, and not his creations,
which may, even accidentally and without ill intent, let you down or cause you
harm.
Finally, beware the cost of pragmatism when it involves
prioritizing the worldly instead of the Godly—the greatest example of this
being Caiaphas, the high priest, being concerned about the relationship with
Rome instead of openly considering whether Jesus might be the Messiah.
Prioritization of the worldly over the Godly was also behind the infamous work
of Burke and Hare, who supplied medical researchers with cadavers by robbing
graves, but ultimately decided to meet excess demand by actually creating cadavers—killing
people. We must never prioritize our sense of worldly needs and realities over
our understanding of the will of God.
Sections in this chapter:
- The heart of faith
- The core message and goal for your life
- Seeking to trust God and become more like Jesus
- Knowing your role—and God’s
- Fruit of the Spirit
- Managing our priorities and our praise
- Identity, the creeds, and unity
- The struggle of finding and holding faith
- Ultimate truth
- Faith must be our own
- Levels and types of faith
- Faith vs. knowledge
- Faith and the Law and Works
- Free Will and The Fall
- Seeking to understand the Bible and life through discernment
- The challenge of discernment
- Handling different discernments
- "Our own words"
- Exploring challenging passages and ideas
- The importance of prayer
- Personal reflections
- The importance of living the life
- It’s not too late
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