Making Jesus Your Preference and Priority

18 November 2024

ENCOURAGE

Affirmation: "Jesus is my preference and priority."

This week, I want us to focus on making Jesus our preference and priority. Living in this busy world, we may find ourselves sacrificing precious time on the temporary pleasures and distractions of this world, when we could be spending time in His presence and doing His will. I want to remind you today that He is ALWAYS the better choice. Once we recognize that, I believe we'll stop sacrificing the gift of living a life totally surrendered to Christ.

The truth is, we all have preferences and priorities. Just think about what your favorite food is, or your favorite style of clothing. Those are preferences. Now think about the things you put most of your time and energy into. Those are your priorities.

Many of us truly desire intimate connection and devotion to the Lord in our hearts, but at times our lives do not reflect that in our decisions. Just take a moment to think over the past seven days. How much time did you spend in the word? How much time did you spend praying and communing with God? How many times did you worship Him and thank Him? How much time did you spend sitting in His presence to hear from Him? How many times did you put another task before Him? How many times did you give into temptation versus standing on the power that He gave you over sin? How many opportunities to listen to the Holy Spirit did you forfeit because you were afraid of the outcome or overthinking if it was really His voice? How many of your decision glorified Him? How many of your thoughts mortified Him?

I ask all these questions, not to condemn, but to get us to a point of recognizing that our life will tell us exactly what we prefer and prioritize. For me, there was one day last week when I was spending a lot of time on social media and, as I was scrolling, I felt in my soul, "God, I've barely given you the time of day today, but here I am trying to share your word with others, when I myself need it." I felt like a complete hypocrite and I felt sorrowful about not spending quality time with Him. Immediately, I decided to put my phone on silent and place it in my bedroom, then I went out into my living room to pray and study the word for a little over an hour. During and after our time, I felt so full and refreshed, versus when I was on social media I began feeling groggy and drained. Once I became aware of the fact that I was prioritizing social media over my time with God, I made a decision to change that. We all can do that, but it's not always easy.

I remember a time where someone hurt my feelings and I wanted to cut them off and give them the cold shoulder. It was tempting because it would have gratified my flesh, but I realized that would not glorify God and in fact it would keep me in bondage of bitterness and unforgiveness. In that moment I had to choose: Do I prefer Jesus' way? Do I prefer holiness? Or do I prioritize tending to my flesh and temporary emotions above the Holy Spirit telling me to forgive? I obviously chose to forgive. Forgiveness actually brought healing and that relationship was eventually restored--praise JESUS. I can only imagine if I gave into my flesh what brokenness and bitterness that would've caused. I share this because not only in our time and decisions do we need to prioritize Christ, but also in our hearts.

I want you to know that Jesus is always the better choice. His way is always better. Whatever you're putting over God in your heart, time, and decisions pales in comparison to Him. He's better than Netflix, food, people pleasing, sleep, selfish ambitions, the fleeting pleasures of this world, money, excessive hours of phone calls with friends or family, doom scrolling on social media, working overtime ALL THE TIME... Whatever it is that's taking His very well deserved spot in your life, HE'S FAR BETTER. I'll tell you this: choices become easy when you know what you want. If you want Christ, learn to prefer and prioritize Him in every aspect of your life. Our life will either make Christ glorified or Christ mortified (because when we fall away, we crucify Him afresh and put Him to shame according to Hebrews 6:6). So this week, make it your mission to make Jesus your preference and priority in all things.

EQUIP

Meditation Scriptures:

Romans 7:14-25

Galatians 5:16-26

1 Peter 1:16

Psalm 16:11

BUILD

Call to Action: Create and schedule daily appointments with God for you to spend uninterrupted time with Him.