Reshaping Your Life to Three Priorities-#1

from the book "The Gentle Ways of the Beautiful Woman" by Anne Ortlund

When a sculptor starts to shap a human form from a huge lump of clay, he doesn't detail the eyes and cheekbones first. He works with the large masses, attempts to get the head proportioned to the body, to set the direction of the trunk, and so on.

As you consider your whole lifestyle, you've got to think about what your top priorities are going to be, before you decide what time you're going to get up in the morning. Let's deal with the large mass of your life first, and I want to suggest to you three priorities that can't be circumvented, though they may gouge and rudely disfigure your present life form before you get things rearranged.

GOD FIRST!
"Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:33

We're to be seekers after Jesus, first. Everything must flow out of the first. And really first! Don't think of yourself first as a wife or a single person or a mother or a worker in some field; you will some day stand before God all by yourself.

What will God have you be and do? He will not say at the Judgment, " I excuse you from this or that because your husband didn't cooperate," or "I understand that you didn't have time to know my Word because of your job..." No one, nothing must keep you from putting God first in your life. You would have all eternity to be sorry.

Everything in our lives must converge at that one point: Christ. That's the only way we'll become integrated, focused, whole women. Jesus said, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand" (Matthew 12:25) Are you divided against yourself?

"How single, God, are You- how whole!
One Source are You, one Way, one Goal.
I tend to splinter all apart
With fractured mind, divided heart;
Oh, integrate my wand'ring maze
To one highway of love and praise.

O single, mast'ring Life of peace
At Whose command the ragings cease,
Keep calling to me "Peace, be still,"
To redirect my scattered will.
Keep gath'ring back my heart to You.
Keep cent'ring all I am and do.

Of focused Spot of holy ground,
Silence which is the Source of sound,
I drop the clutter from my soul,
Reorganized by Your control;
Then single, whole, before Your throne,
I give myself to You alone"

None of the good things in my life dare be a substitute for the best. God can have no competition in your heart, or in mine.Are you fearful of what will happen if you wholly submit to God?

The first Queen Elizabeth asked a man to go abroad for her on business. "I sincerely wish I could, but I can't. My business would rather suffer," said the man. "Sir", replied the Queen,"If you will attend to my business, I will take care of your business."

Work out the implications in your own life of putting God first.
Settle into Him; make Him your home. Nestle there, secure as in a strong, eternal fortress.




How do we do this? Let me suggest four ways; His Spirit will teach you many more.

1) Practice His presence-Jesus did!. Jesus was special; he was part of the Trinity; but he tells us also to abide in him! So we get our clues from Jesus; when we abide continually in the Father, the words that we speak won't be spoken on our own initiative; the Father within us will do the works. Live your life consciously before him, moment by moment. Trust Him to help you do it.





2) Jealously guard a daily quiet time spent alone with God-Jesus did! He sent the multitudes away to pray. Everyone has 24 hours. We can soak ourselves in prayer, in his Word, in himself , if we really want to.

3) Seek the Lord in occaisional longer hunks of time. Jesus did! in Luke 6:12 he spent an entire night in prayer, because he felt the need-he, the Son of God. How much more do we need these extended times with God?

4) Be diligent in your attendance of public worship. Jesus was! Certainly the Son of God wasn't going to church "for what he could get out of it" Maybe it was often less than the best. He went because he pleased the Father in all things. Be committed to public worship of God every week whether you feel like it or not, whether the preaching is great or it isn't. We go for what God gets out of it. He want us to be there, not via television or radio, but personally with the Body of Christ. (Hebrews 10:25)