Daily Devotional for Wednesday February 16, 2000

Priorities

(Matthew 26:7)

Our priorities. My mother used to tell me as a young man that "actions speak louder than words". How very true. Nothing speaks louder about our commitment to Christ than how we prioritize spending our time and money. The one commodity every person alive today has in common is time. We make conscious decisions how we will spend that time, such as going to school, work, the time we watch television, read, hopefully have our quiet time with the Lord, go shopping, etc. We consciously decide how we will spend our day. For most of us, our time is very valuable. We guard it. We carefully schedule it. We recognize that it is a precious resource. It is critical to make the most of each day since when it is over it is never coming back. Let me interject this into your thought process about time. Time, like everything else BELONGS TO GOD. It is no different from anything else we have in this life. It belongs to Him! Only by His grace we have this commodity we call time to use each day. He gives it to us to achieve our purpose in this life..to serve and glorify Him. I want you to start recognizing each day as the gift from God that it is. Recognize that it has been given to you for the purpose of serving Him. That service comes in many forms. Most are called to serve Him in the day-to-day places life takes us . . . the classroom, the job site, the playground, the shopping mall. Most of us serve Him throughout our normal day-to-day routine. The danger is that we forget how precious time really is, and that like everything else, it belongs to Him.

Of course how we spend our money says a lot about our commitment as well. It is amazing how people committed to the things of this world have no problem spending whatever is necessary to fulfill their earthly pleasures. Adult websites charge $30-$50 each month to access their material and have tens of thousands faithfully paying each month. Las Vegas continues to build bigger, brighter, more excessive casino/hotels each year and people pour into that town with incredible amounts of money. Movie studios spend hundreds of millions on motion pictures depicting the best things this world has to offer, knowing that millions will spend $5-$12 per ticket to watch.

My point is that people always find the money to fulfill their earthly desires, while many works of God go underfunded. I am sure there is not as much entertainment value in giving $12 to a ministry helping homeless people get their lives turned around, as there is in sitting in an air-conditioned movie theater for 2 hours watching whatever the Hollywood hit of the month may be. Listen, I am not going to try to debate the whole concept of giving to ministries, the excesses some ministries have gone to, or any of those issues. I am not trying to condemn people for going to movies or having fun in life, as long as they are involved in wholesome activities. I am only trying to point out that how we spend our money, which by the way is not really ours at all . . . it is simply on loan to us from God . . . tells a lot about our commitment to the Lord. I just want it to be something you pray about today and take note of.

The purpose of this devotional today is not to condemn you or anyone. It is simply to get you to focus on the fact that our time and our money belongs to God. They are His. They have been given to us to help us achieve our purpose in this life of serving Him and bringing Glory to His name. I pray today that you open your heart and mind and pray. Ask God if you are being good stewards of the time and money He gives you each day. Remember, our actions always speak much louder than our words. Others are watching . . . most important, God is watching. I love you. I care about you deeply. I pray today that your goal is the same as mine, to one day stand before Him and hear those words, "well done thou good and faithful servant".