Cutting Out the Chaos: Repositioning Priorities
From Cutting Out the Chaos
by Pastor Nave on June 11, 2017
We live every day by a set of priorities. Most of the time, we’ve taken liberty to set the priorities in our lives and haven’t considered the priorities God wants. We’re not born with the ability or the desire to follow God’s way, but through His Spirit we must submit to the plan God has for us.
In today’s world people make decisions and set priorities based on life’s circumstances. We have more stress in our lives and are busier than generations before. On the whole, there’s a lot of chaos today. When we identify the presence of chaos, we must realize this isn’t of God; it isn’t His will (I Corinthians 14:33). But, at its onset, we must determine where it’s originating from. Most of the time, the root cause is ourselves.
We are our worst enemy. We set our own priorities (the wrong ones) and they wreak havoc in our lives. Our own priorities are driven by our base nature—sinful flesh—which will do nothing but destroy us. However, God has come to set our priorities, and to give us life (John 10:10).
If we allow God to order our priorities, He will eliminate chaos from our lives (Psalms 37:23). But, half the battle is delighting in the way of the Lord first before we can reap the benefits. We need to allow God’s Spirit to come in and direct our every step and submit to the plan He has for our lives.
Consider the story of the woman who encountered the prophet Elijah. She was going to make a cake for herself and her son, and then they were going to eat it and die (I Kings 17:7–14). But, Elijah told her not to fear (I Kings 17:13)! God had a plan and priority for their lives, and it was one that didn’t include suffering and death. From this story, we can learn many things.
One, we cannot set priorities in our lives based on our emotions—especially fear. Fear is all about loss and not having what we think we need in life. But, our fear cannot be the driving force behind our priorities. Jesus told us never to worry; He would take care of us if we would just trust Him (Matthew 6:25–34). Our Heavenly Father knows what we need. We can’t build our priorities on contingency plans and the worry of what might come. We must seek God, and He will supply our every need.
The little woman was very self-focused when she told Elijah what she was going to do (I Kings 17:12). We must get the “I” out of our priorities and focus on what God wants us to do. We can’t have core values and priorities in our lives that focus on us. As with fear, flesh cannot be the driving force behind our priorities. If our priorities start with the idea of pleasing ourselves, having fun, or making us comfortable, it’s not a priority that came from God and supports His Kingdom. We are living in a self-focused society, and this mentality is infiltrating the church (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, we need to examine our hearts and ask God what’s important in our life. It’s not up to us, it’s up to God (Proverbs 14:12).
We cannot set our priorities based on what we think is the easiest or more convenient. We are to seek the Kingdom of God first and have God dictate the order (Matthew 6:33). When abide this mentality, we’ll stop worrying so much on what it will take. If we seek God first to have Him set our priorities, He’ll filter out what will harm us and protect us from the chaos it will bring into our lives. We should have a mindset of filtering our priorities through the Kingdom of God. If it helps, advances, edifies, etc., it’s probably a priority. If it distracts, tears down, hinders, etc., it’s probably not.
We cannot hear the message today and not do anything about it. We must go and do (I Kings 17:13). We need to sit down with our loved ones, pray, and ask God what our priorities should be. We cannot live the same way after hearing this instruction. It may take us time to reposition our priorities to be in alignment with Him and eliminate the chaos form our lives, but we need to start today. We can’t wait for the perfect conditions (Ecclesiastes 11:4). Now is the time. Let’s make it a priority to cut out the chaos.
