FIRST THINGS FIRTS

There is a story told of a bishop who had the heaviest work load of any priest in the diocese. He was a good man, a holy man, they said, and it was well known that he rose at five o'clock in the morning and spent two hours in prayer before his day began. All the different organizations and groups he spearheaded, prospered spiritually and materially. However, many of the younger clerics thought the old man was overworked and secretly wondered when he would cave in from exhaustion. Their surprise was great when a conference of bishops gave him, in addition to his other duties, the responsibility of co-ordinating the overseas missionary society. He threw himself into that work as if he were a young man and that society prospered like everything else under the old man's ministry. One day his colleagues could bear it no longer. Taking him aside, they asked him his secret. “How could you possibly take on such a large undertaking without sacrificing just a bit here or a bit there of your other duties?” The old bishop looked amazed at their question. “Why, the answer is simple. The more I have to do, the more I pray. I rise an hour earlier in die morning for prayer and everything else I must do during the day just seems to mind itself.” How he learned this I never heard. But it seems safe to guess it was from the Scriptures, for Jesus Himself gave the words and the example. He was talking to the people who followed Him and recognised Him as a great Teacher because He spoke so compassionately about their concerns. We can picture Him standing in the midst of these ordinary people, every eye riveted on Him. “And why worry about your clothes? Look at the field lilies! They don't worry about theirs. Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't He most surely care for you, O men of little faith? So don't worry at all about having enough food and clothing. Why be like the heathen? For they take pride in all these things and are deeply concerned about them. But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them” (Matthew 6:28-32 TLB). Then, I imagine that Jesus paused and looked each member of the crowd in the eye so that each would understand the importance of what He had to say next. “And He (the Father) will give them to you if you give Him FIRST PLACE in your life and live as He wants you to. So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” (Matthew 6:33-34 TLB). Just as surely as Jesus was speaking to those people and to their needs, He is speaking to us and also to our quest for time today. If we give Him first place in our lives, and live as He wants us to live, He has promised to give us all that we need. Not only did Jesus tell us we can trust God for everything when we put God first, but He gave us the example through His actions. One particular morning His disciples woke up at the usual time and found Him gone. He had spent the day before preaching, healing, walking and mixing with the people who closed in on Him. His disciples yawned and stretched and said to one another, “He is no doubt close by. We'll just look for the nearest crowd and find Him there.” But everywhere they went the crowds who had gathered to see Jesus, asked them, “Have you seen Jesus of Nazareth today?” At last Simon found Him out in the wilderness alone, praying to His Father. “Come,” Peter said, “everyone is asking for You.” Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and give my message to them too, for that is why I came” (Mark 1:38 TLB). He knew what was ahead of Him that day. He had three options: One was to get some badly needed sleep and trust that the Father Who had sent Him on His mission would give Him the strength and the time. The second option was, in view of all that had to be done, to get up early and get going. The third was to take time to be alone with His Father before His work began. Of the three, should we choose less than He did? Paul wrote, “...redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16), upon which Wesley commented, “With all possible care redeeming the time - saving all you can for the best purposes; buying every possible moment out of the hands of sin and Satan; out of the hands of sloth, ease, pleasure, worldly business; the more diligently, because the present are evil days, days of the grossest ignorance, immorality, and profaneness.” Let us choose - every day - to put first things first, and God will do the rest! -Selected