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What takes first place in your life? What guides your decisions? What occupies your mind? The current economic situation has a lot of people thinking – hard – about how to provide for themselves and their families. Investments have tumbled and jobs have been lost and folks are scrambling to take care of basic needs. In the middle of all this it’s easy to lose sight of our priorities.

The Lord said, “²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ” (Matthew 6:25-27) It does no good to worry – and it goes against the Christian lifestyle that the Lord has taught us. What good does it do to worry when the Lord provides for His own?

And yet folks continue to look for ways to earn more money, turning “the almighty dollar” into their god. Night and day they slave away, forgetting WHY they are working in the first place. Earning more and more and gathering up earthly things which will be destroyed at the end of time takes priority in too many lives. Wives, husbands and children are abandoned on the wayside in the scramble to work, work, work, acquire, acquire, acquire. How much is enough? “Just a little bit more” says the minimum wage earner. “Just a little bit more” says the millionaire. They both are caught up in the rat race, forgetting their priorities in the struggle to gain “just a little bit more”.
Designer clothes, a bigger house, a newer or bigger car – all are things that are not necessarily bad in and of themselves. They are, after all, just material objects which have no intrinsic value other than that assigned to them by their owner or the person who seeks them out. They will all be destroyed at the end of time when the Lord returns. It is people who hold great value in the Lord’s eyes. People are His priority. So why do we worry about signs of wealth here on this earth? ” ²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30)

Are we indeed His People? Are we indeed “sheep of His pasture”? Do we indeed trust in His love and provision? Or are we like those who do not know the Lord, worrying about the minor things of life? Have we been transformed by the renewing of our minds or are we still stuck in the daily grind of life? “³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6:31-32)

As we learn to be transformed into the image of Christ we need to reset our priorities. Instead of thinking “Will this give me more $$$$?” let us ask if it will further God’s kingdom. Instead of asking “Give me a bigger house, a newer car, fancier clothes” let’s ask the Lord to teach us hospitality, to provide so that we can go where He needs us to be, to help us dress modestly so that we do not bring dishonor to His Name. As we set our priorities in order we need to ask the Lord to teach us what these words mean – and put them in action in our lives. “³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

Priorities. Once we put the Lord’s Word in action – seeking what will further God’s Kingdom and bring about His justice – we will no longer have problems with deciding our priorities. As we renew our minds we will learn to think first, “What decision will bring the most glory to God?” Suddenly the things of this earth will grow dim in comparison to the glories of His Paths and His Kingdom.