Lord of Our Priorities
By Josephine Benton

A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for July 2–8, 2005

Considering how many competing ways there are in which we could spend our precious days—and months—and years, it’s obvious we have to choose and prioritize. Our Sabbath School lesson this week tells us that we are to make our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord of our priorities.

Why?

Because a love response is appropriate.

Inhabitants of earth could have been doomed to extinction from the time of Adam and Eve’s sinning. However, God loves us earthly people! He desires us to be with him in his kingdom, but he does not want the sinning. Therefore the plan was devised (before sin ever entered) that sinners would be given another chance at life. What a cost this incurred, as God himself paid the penalty of death for our sins!

Does this cause me to want to be submissive to my Lord Jesus and his Father? Yes! I am humbly grateful, eager to cooperate.

Because the love response Jesus sees us giving him involves full priority.

Jesus sometimes described specifically how he envisioned our love response: "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15); if you are to be my disciple, you will love me even more than you love your family members (Luke 14:26).1

We owe him everything. But why does he ask for it? Jesus is not grasping or selfish. He does enjoy having a mutual loving relationship with his creatures. But primarily this is the way of success for us. Making Jesus Lord is our way to live a productive, satisfying, victorious life now, and continuing into eternity.

Because Jesus set us an example of making his Father’s will his priority.

He told a crowd that was following him and questioning him, "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38).

"Doing His Father’s will was the number one priority of Jesus. His plan for life was simply this: To discover the father’s will and do it" (Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Tuesday, July 5).

How do we make our Savior Jesus Christ the Lord of our priorities?

Jesus sought his Father’s will through prayer.

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed" (Mark 1:35). Sometimes Jesus was asking his Father for guidance in a challenging situation. In this case, "Everyone is looking for you!" (v. 36). Peter and his companions must have been hoping the enthusiastic crowd in Capernaum would promote Jesus’ earthly kingdom. But the directive Jesus received from his Father evidently was to "go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come" (v. 38).

Another important time when he sought wisdom and direction, "Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles" (Luke 6:12, 13).

We, too, can seek the divine priorities through prayer

The privilege of rising early to study the Bible and related materials and to talk with God is a cherished part of my life. With the psalmist I can say,

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.
(Ps. 5:3 NIV)

Why is morning (or first waking-up time) so important for communing with God?2

In the morning I often ask God to baptize me anew with the Holy Spirit.3 As I commit my life to the Lord Jesus, I ask him to direct me in making and carrying out plans. If during the day I’m worried over a decision or action, I think, "God will help me make that decision," and he does.

What a wonderful prospect is ours! The "Lord of our priorities" is our enabler. "God not only expects me to do his will, but he is in me to do it"4

Questions:

1. Ellen White says in Desire of Ages, page 208, "So utterly was Christ emptied of self that He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God’s plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will."

   Do you think you can live your life this way?

2. May we through carelessness or indifference not get the essence of the guidance the Lord of our priorities offers us? Example: Moses’ actions when water became inadequate for the large group of traveling Israelites—a second time. (First time: Exodus 17:1 ff; Second time: Numbers 20:2 ff.). You probably remember that God instructed Moses the first time to strike the rock, but the second time to speak to it. Moses just struck the rock again the second time, and God was greatly displeased.

   How easily we can think, "Oh, yes—the rock and the staff, we did that before. We’ll do it the same way this time." "The evangelism we conducted last year went off well, let’s just get that procedure going again." And we don’t give God the credit that he might have a DIFFERENT plan in mind this time! So we don’t have the prayer sessions, we just jump right in.

Notes

1. Bible quotations are from the NIV unless otherwise indicated.
2. Each seeking person finds the times that work for her/his special meetings with God. I picture a mother with children all around her feet. When they sleep, she may feel desperate to accomplish many things (including sleep herself!). But she will find her way. I think of Minnie Sype, who as a young wife and mother was introduced to Bible truths she had never known. "Minnie approached the Bible as ravenous people come to food. While washing dishes, she memorized Bible verses." Josephine Benton, Called by God: Stories of Seventh-day Adventist Women Ministers (Lincoln, Neb.: AdventSource, 2002), 26.
3. Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1911), 50.
4. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, An Updated Edition in Today’s Language (Cedar Rapids, Ia.: Parsons Technology, 1992}, June 6.

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