Hello Readers & Followers,
How are you doing? I hope you are well. I'd like to apologise for not publishing a post last week, I had a busy week. Today's post is about setting our priorities.
As Christian women, oftentimes we are overwhelmed with a number of daily tasks that we have to complete, and we don't know where to start or we feel guilty for not prioritising everything at the same time. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything, there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven." This means there is a time that we need to apportion for everything that we do. But do we always get it right? Let me speak for myself, I don't always get it right but I try to follow God's guidelines when it comes to planning my everyday activity, and I review as I go along.
I would like you to consider these three things when you are setting your priorities
1) First and foremost, learn to put God first in your life. Prioritise your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Bible says "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and every other thing shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). The Bible also says in Philippians 3:8a that "everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
Developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is important. It is different from putting our physical church first as I know some people confuse both; they think prioritising service to God through ministries in the church or an online ministry is the same as prioritising their personal relationship with Christ - No, they are not the same thing. This is something that I have learnt and I am still learning to ensure that I do not confuse both.
You may ask, how do you prioritise God when you feel overwhelmed and when you do not feel close to God? I would like to remind you that our feelings aren't always accurate. Because you feel overwhelmed does not mean you have abandoned God, or God is not with you. In fact, God is close to you at your lowest point in life. Your foundation is in Christ and His Truth, and not in your feelings. When you feel overwhelmed, God still wants to hear from you.
2) Your commitment to your family and home. My husband always says that if you know that you are going to abandon your family and prioritise ministries work and involvement in the community, and responsibilities at work above your family and home, why did you marry or start a family? God does not want you to abandon your family and home. There will be a time in your ministry that you will be extremely busy, everybody may even want you to be a guest, At this crucial time, God would like you not to forget your family as this is the first ministry that He has given you. You must liaise with your spouse to agree on how to balance this as a family.
God wants us to commit to our family especially our spouse and children. They are given to you by God to prioritise. They need your time and not your leftover time. 1 Timothy 3: 4- 5 says "He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?" This Scripture also applies to women in ministry, it is not just for men. 1 Timothy 5:8 is quite profound, it says:
But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers (1 Timothy 5:8 NLT version).
3) Your service to God through ministries or your responsibility to your employer or your involvement in the community. Sometimes you may have to say no when some good requests for your time do not fit the overall plan of God's plan for your life. Take a look at the life of Jesus Christ in Luke 4:42-43:
"Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. But he replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.”
This is something that I am still working on as well, learning to say no when I need to say no, and learning to say yes when I need to say yes.
We all need to continue to ask God to teach us how to plan our days effectively in line with His order for our lives as there is a time for everything.
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Have a lovely week!
Yours in Christ,
Mysses Lafunky
I have a free e-book for you. The book (15 Women of the Bible: How they lived a Purpose Driven Life). This e-book was written by my Bible Study Group. To download on Google Drive for free, click here.
Such wise advice. I frequently find that I need to step back and check if I'm keeping God's priorities. Too often we can fail to value the work God has called us to do in our homes and with our family. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Patti for always stopping by. I appreciate you. I love how you are intentional in taking a step back to check if you are keeping God's priorities. This is helpful! I believe every believer needs to take time to reflect on their schedules. One thing that I am learning also is that different Christian household prioritises different things in their own order, and we may feel pressurised to want to value what others prioritise. However, God's priorities should be our standard.
DeleteThank you for this wise advice. Too often we don't value the work God calls us to at home and with our family members enough.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm in my 70s, prioritizing is still a challenge sometimes, but it is much easier than it was when I was raising my children. Older women in the church ought to be more helpful to the young mothers, especially single mothers. Thank you for sharing this post.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rosemary for stopping by. You have raised a fantastic point. We need older women in the church to help us, young mothers, with a number of things that we need to juggle. We need the wisdom of older women. Alongside my husband, we are raising two young children at the moment coupled with a number of ministries work and my professional job and his professional job; it is an ongoing challenge to balance everything. However, we are intentional in working towards God's priorities.
DeleteWise words, shared so clearly, that everything we do needs to flow from our relationship with the Lord. A timely read, as I am having an extra busy week, thank you for your faithfulness in sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sharon for your kind words. Indeed, everything that we do needs to flow from our relationship with the Lord. This translates to us being spiritually-minded.
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