Do you want to be ahead of the game?
Learn how to co-operate with God for the fulfillment of the future that He has planned for you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “…For I know the thoughts that I have towards you says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil; to give you a future and a hope’. It is important to frequently ask ourselves pertinent questions to make sure that we are on track to fulfil everything that God has called us to do.
First ask yourself:
What are my priorities?
What things should come first in my life?
What are the things that I value most?
What do I want to accomplish in life?
How can I grasp hold of my life and bring it under the control of the Holy Spirit so that I move in the right direction to fulfil God’s will for me?
Faced with the pressures of the things that demand our attention we do not know what to do first at times. The Holy Spirit wants to teach us how to prioritise our lives through some important principles.
Principle 1
Your life purpose determines your priorities
Your life purpose determines your priorities
Make God’s dreams your dreams. When you make God’s purpose the number one thing in your mind, you will discover God’s plan for your life. God’s way of working is to take hold of you and bring you into active co-operation with Him. In divine partnership, you and God can fulfil His purpose for your life. When you know what God wants for you, you know what to include and exclude from your life.
Principle 2
You are called to partner with God
In this partnership God is always the senior partner. He did not pre-programme you according to a pre-set pattern. He has given you a freedom of choice. However, you will only fulfill God’s plan as you partner with Him, in submission to Him, and most of all out of a relationship with Him. God has sown seeds of greatness in your spirit and He wants the seeds to germinate and bear fruits of greatness in your life.
Principle 3
Your activity must flow from your identity and not the other way round
What you do must be an expression of who you are. The world judges your worth as a person by what you have and by what you do. You are not what you have; you are who you are in Christ. Material possessions do not define who you are but who you are defines your material possessions. This is the answer to true biblical prosperity. Jesus said that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possession. You are a person of infinite worth and value in God’s sight. Therefore what you do must flow from this. God is a relational God. He has made us relational people and called us into a relationship with Him. You will find your purpose in this relationship. King David helps us with this insight. Psalm 27:4; “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple’.
Principle 4
The image of God in you means that you have the capacity and responsibility to plan
Amongst other things, being made in the image of God means that you have a rational mind. You have the capacity to determine, to think, to take steps, plan and strategise. God has called you to enter the realm of strategic planning, thinking and goal setting according to His purpose for your life. Everything comes from Him; you do not create your own reality. You need to plan your life from God’s perspective. This is the only way you will know whether the next step you take is the right one. We constantly need to look at our plans – reviewing and refining them according to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
Principle 5
You will never fulfil your life’s purpose unless you learn to prioritise your actions
We are born into a world of expectations – expectation of parents, society, culture and our own. Not all of these are from God and can sometimes be unrealistic. For all sorts of reasons we sometimes place totally unrealistic expectations and burdens on our lives because our aspirations and inspirations are out of control. We have to learn how to prioritise our actions by seeing through our unrealistic expectations and learning when to say “No’. Remember Jesus said: “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Other yokes are heavy but God’s yoke is not heavy. Fear God and not man – please God and not man. You have as much time as you need to do what God has called you to do. Organise and prioritise your time with this in mind.
Principle 6
We have to learn what God’s priorities are
Line up with what God thinks is important. Jesus told us what God considers important – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbour as yourself. God thinks relationship with Him and with others is the most important thing in your life. So often we neglect our relationships because our ambition and drive takes us in another direction where work takes over from family life. The order in our relationships is that God comes first, then our family, the church and then work.
Principle 7
Learn how to put God’s priorities into practice
This means being preoccupied and totally taken up with the things that count for eternity. God’s Word is eternal. Souls are eternal. Understand the supreme importance of reading and studying the Word of God and praying first. Everything else comes after. When you understand the value of a human soul you will not let a day go by without you praying for somebody to come to Christ. You will build relationships for people to come to Christ and share the gospel in every way that you can meaningfully do so. Then you will truly discover God’s call on your life. Jesus said “Go make disciples of all nations, baptising them and teaching them everything that I have taught you’. This is His call and there is no escaping it. Whatever you are, whatever your job is, your call is to make disciples and that means first of all that you must be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
How do you live the prioritised life?
Paul speaks about this in Philippians 3:13 “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’
First of all, set the goal – to know Jesus. This is the ultimate goal. It is not just coming to know Christ as your personal Saviour. It is the whole of your life given over to seeking Him and growing in the knowledge of Him.
Secondly, forget the past. Leave the things that are behind.
Thirdly, press on towards the goal. Let your life count for God.