Skip to main content

Put Christ First TODAY


Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. (Proverbs 4:7)

"Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose and frame your life with faith." (Thomas S. Monson) No truer words have been spoken - all these choices matter so greatly, don't they? Wisdom eludes many of our decisions throughout our lifetime, leaving us a bit more disappointed in the outcome than we'd have hoped. Choose wisely and the outcome brings us cheer. Make an unwise choice in friendships, or our future plans, and the end result will surely leave us wanting. Choose to put God first in our lives and the choices we make in the other two area are sure to be better than if we'd made them on our own!

How do we consistently make wise choices? The answer is really quite simple - we choose Christ first above all else. Why does this ensure consistently wise choices? Christ IS wisdom - he embodies all wisdom, so choosing him means we actually 'tap into' wisdom's source! You have probably grown tired of me stressing 'Christ first' in your life, but there really is no other 'wise' choice. The more we plan for the future without putting Christ first in those plans, the more those plans are bound to have unforeseen consequences, unexpected expenses, and disappointing outcomes.

Develop a life of faith - above all else. The rest just falls into place somehow. We don't understand how Christ brings clarity where there has been so much chaos, but he does. We don't always appreciate how or when he moves, but he always orchestrates things. The important thing is to place our trust in his plans and purposes for our lives - then walk in the wisdom he gives each and every day, so we are making the right choice for that day. I think we want to plan our choices way out into the future, but Christ asks us to choose him TODAY, make choices in his wisdom TODAY, and plan TODAY for what may add to our tomorrows. 

We get the cart before the horse many times and wonder why the pieces seem to not be working well. Today is all we are assured - so live it well. Be wise in today's choices, knowing God holds the future plans in his hands. The 'purpose' in our future is made up of the 'purpose' of our TODAY. If our purpose TODAY is Christ first in all we do, we are making wise choices. If Christ first in our relationships is the means by which we relate to one another, then TODAY'S relationships will make for stronger ones tomorrow! Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,