| “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.” – Acts 6:4 |
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| ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES Acts 6:4 offers several vital lessons regarding the best use of our TIME. The context of Acts 6:4 finds the disciples being drawn into disputes that, well, distracted them from their main purpose. While the concerns expressed by the Hellenistic widows were valid (Acts 6:1) the disciples had to decide whether they should handle getting food to them or could this be something delegated. They had to consider what was their top priority. They had to determine what they were going to be giving their time to. In doing so they realized that they needed to give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. What are you giving yourself to? I will tell you that this question is not a one-time question. It is a question that needs to be asked occasionally. My management of time calls for me to schedule a time to schedule my time. In earlier days I attended several seminars on time management and read several books and listened to several lessons from Dr. John C. Maxwell. One of the earliest lessons stressed the importance of Beginning with the End in Mind. This helped me to think about WHAT I WAS GIVING MYSELF TO base not on a day or a week or a month or a year or even 5 years but rather on ETERNITY. Because I wanted to be found faithful and hear Jesus say well done my good and faithful servant, I had a filter for how I would use my time. The usage of my time needed to be for eternal purposes, not temporal purposes. Knowing what my top priority was helped me to decide what to do with the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. I determined that to be found faithful I would need to be growing in my relationship with God. I was to be seeking Him first! In order to make Him known I needed to know Him. For me this meant that first thing in the morning I would find “my chair” and there give worship to Him, get wisdom from Him, and then and only then go to work for Him. In determining my priorities, I understood clearly from Scripture that after the Lord came my relationship with my wife. Once I said, “I do” and heard the pronouncement “you are husband” I knew I had a new role filled with new responsibilities. To be found faithful meant being a responsible husband. A little over two years of marriage brought the blessings of being a father. Having read the roles and responsibilities of a father in the Bible I determined to be found faithful meant fulfilling those responsibilities and decisions were made for both quality and quantity time to be spent with each of our four children. Then came my work. And work is essential as it helps to fulfill the responsibility of taking care of one’s family and hopefully, the work you are doing is a work for the Lord, that is your work is according to the will of God. What must be prioritized with work though is how much it demand of us to neglect our relationship with God and our responsibilities with family. This then is where evaluating our priorities occasionally becomes a necessity. I can’t tell you how often you do this, but it has to be done more than once a year. So, what are you giving yourself to? What ADJUSTMENTS need to be made so that first things will be first and the main thing stays the main thing? I can tell you that you can’t do everything, and God has not called you to do everything. Like the disciples in Acts 6, you must decide what is the best use of your time! Verse to DATE the Word on June 4 (6/4) is Acts 6:4. It says, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.” Continue Strong with Established Priorities, And remember to DATE the Word |