First Things First
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. – Matthew 6:24 NKJV.
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. – Matthew 6:33 NKJV.
Have you ever paid $305 for an empty can of dog food? Perhaps you frequently pay $51 for empty Coke cans? Or, do you pay $152.50 to buy a used envelope? In a recent eBay auction, those were the prices actually paid for those items. It is almost incomprehensible until you connect those items to the name of…Paris Hilton. Yes, all those items once passed through the hands of Paris or at least that is what is claimed by hollywoodstartrash dot com. There are people actually willing to pay extreme amounts for the trash of the famous.
Our society in this country is obviously focused on…I guess you could say the trashy, and the trash of the trashy. On eBay, a search for Paris Hilton turned up 1103 hits while Billy Graham had 200, and his son Franklin only had 26. Using the Google search engine it was even more disproportionate with Paris receiving 67 million search items, and Billy Graham just getting not quite two million. Thankfully, God still has the most search returns on eBay with 8,407, and He beats even Paris on Google with 341 million.
If someone were to ask you what the focus of your life is on, what would you say? Would you say God is first? Most Christians would automatically put God at the first of the list, because we know that is what we ought to say. However, there are other ways of determining your life focus. Time can be used to help in determining our focus. How much time do you spend with God every week? Church, prayer, Bible reading, singing praises, and serving? Then, how much time do you spend on things like soap operas or romance novels? For us men, it could be golf, football, hunting, or just watching the news. What is your focus in life? Where are you spending your time? Is it where God would have you to be? How are you spending your time? Is it how God would want you to be spending your time?
Another method of determining the focus of our lives, is to consider how we spend money. Do we use it to buy Paris Hilton’s empty can of dog food for $305, or do we use it to provide the food for 38 children for a month (Feed the Children). Do we pay $51 for an empty Coke can that was once in the hand of Paris, or do we take that $51 and place it in the hand of our Lord to spread the Gospel?
Most of us can do better. I know I can. Let us commit ourselves to putting first things first as in the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Instead of seeking pleasure from the world, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).”
(What is your focus in life? What do you put first?)