Priorities

I was gripped by a thought from Richard Sibbes this morning, that comes from his comment on two verse:  “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33), and “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).  Sibbes said that you cannot put things in their proper priority unless you know your overall purpose in life.  We must know why we are here, why we have been created, to put everything in our lives in their proper order.  Things that are closer to our highest end, that are needed to fulfill the purpose of our existence, will be given a higher priority.  We must seek God first each day, and then other things will fall into place.  That is a tremendous thought!  In Sibbes’ words. “Our care should be so to use the world that we may not lose Christ, or communion with him in better things; so to look to things temporal, as that we lose not things eternal.”  “One thing I desire”, said David; “One thing is necessary”, said Christ;  “One thing I do”, said Paul.  Does it not just put us to shame, how often we let lesser things command our full attention?!