Jesus’ Priorities for Daily Living

Dr. Mike Prayers, Scriptures , ,

‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ Matt 6:9-13

priorities

We can view Jesus’ priority of values by viewing the prayer he taught his students. Today we classify this prayer as The Lord’s Prayer.  When you study this prayer, you notice the hierarchy of values Jesus places on each request. Each request identifies an important value for living and moves from the highest to the lowest of importance.

First, he identifies we are all together on this life voyage by recognizing God as Father of us all. Translation: life is a team sport and God is the owner and coach.

Secondly, he gives great respect and tribute to God for who He IS and what His name signifies. Translation: God is creator and humanity is his creation – acknowledge it and live it out.

The third point Jesus emphasizes is God’s Kingdom coming to earth. Translation: since his entire message during the three-year public ministry was to let the earth’s inhabitants know the reign of God’s Kingdom is being restored on earth, get on board. His government rules through the souls of his subjects executing his decrees from a servant’s heart.

Then the fourth point highlights the importance of maintaining the attitude of a servant following the desires and wishes of his master. Translation: the emphasis is for you to do whatever you do God’s way and place your desires and wishes behind His. You are a servant of the Lord for the sake of others.

The next point highlights how Jesus places importance of not waiting until we are all in heaven, but focus on bringing the richness of heaven to earth today. Translation: your everyday mission is to colonize earth.

Only after focusing on God’s priorities, does Jesus place his personal physical desires and needs on the necessities of daily substance. Translation: we all need food, clothing, and shelter and since God created all the resources at our disposal, he can also lead us to them.

Then his emphasis is on relationships. Translation: we mend relationships by forgiving others. In our walk-through forgiveness, we learn humility and love for God, others and ourselves.

Next, he acknowledges the struggle of temptations which may turn into a sorry state of affairs IF not defeated. Translation: instead of blinding ourselves to the strength of sin’s influence, our request needs to keep asking for help to keep these battles far from us and minimal in quantity.

He also acknowledges the evil around us: Translation: this alone should prompt us to keep in close contact with Him who can help us in times of trouble.

And lastly, he closes where he began by acknowledging God is here forever and His kingdom is forever, and His rule is forever, and His fame is forever. Translation: he is the One who needs to remain the center of everything we think, do, and want to be. Life is His story being played out through humanity.

Final thought: Is it possible one reason Jesus taught this prayer with his disciples is to highlight the important priorities of God and how the needs of mankind work hand-in-hand with His ultimate plan for humanity?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

*  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
*  Great Business Emulates a Good God
*  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
*  Simply The Messenger
*  Unequally Married

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Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Waste Time with God

Dr. Mike Living the Psalms , , ,

PS: 37:3-5, 7, 23-24, 39-40

 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will live in the land, and enjoy security…

Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart…

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act…

Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
over those who carry out evil devices….

Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
when he delights in our way;
though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong,
for the Lord holds us by the hand…

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
he is their refuge in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and rescues them;
he rescues them from the wicked, and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.

waste time

The Thirty-Seven Psalm is one of my favorites. Whenever life throws another undesirable obstacle my way, the words from this passage come to mind.

Being an occasional over-achiever, I sometimes fall prey to the humanistic view that life is a formula. If I do A and B plus C, then life will generate D. However, overtime reality eventually teaches us life is not a predictable formula. You can push all the correct buttons, but life’s results are not a scheduled software program with predetermined results already in place. The many unknown options and variables allow multiple outcomes. We may hold personal expectations, but most of those outcomes are controlled by others outside our influence.

So, is there a better way than to work harder, manipulate more, call on favors, beg key influencers, practice superstitious rituals, and strive ourselves until sheer exhaustion?

The writer of Psalms 37 not only believed but witness countless life circumstances that says yes. As a long-term apprentice of Jesus Christ, I likewise witness countless events in people’s life where an outside, invisible hand changed outcomes while regenerating a person’s spirit. This invisible hand has come known to me as the Triune God – Father God, Lord Jesus, and Holy Spirit.

Now instead of continually mastering all the human tools for success, health, and happiness, I rather lean on an Eternal One whose ways are often considered foolish in the eyes of humanity. To waste time with God rather than pursue one’s goal doesn’t make sense I’ve been told over and over again. But life’s outcomes prove otherwise.

If you haven’t done so yet, why not put Father-Son-Spirit to the test? This next month make the intentional purpose to waste time with God. Go to the beach, ride a bike, take a trip to the park, and focus your mind, body, and soul toward listening and communicating with Him. Don’t expect any specific results, instead wait until the end of the month and reflect on what just happened. If you are honest with yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised, and want to repeat the process over and over again.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

*  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
*  Great Business Emulates a Good God
*  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
*  Simply The Messenger
*  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

 

Fulfill Your Potential

Dr. Mike Journey in Christ , ,
1 Corinthians 13 (NASB)
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

potential1

The poets, romantics, and song writers have it right. Real love is the greatest high this life offers. We are not speaking of puppy love, or a self-centered feeling which makes you feel good. But a sacrificial, outgoing concern for the welfare and benefit of the other. The love Jesus demonstrated throughout his life.

For example, Lord Jesus washed the feet of his students. A role the lowest of servants of a house usually performed. He forgave his persecutors while dying on the cross. He turned water into wine in respect for his mother and so the bride and groom would not be embarrassed at their wedding festivities.

He spent days and nights sacrificing his privacy teaching his students the ways of God. In fact, his entire mission was to introduce everyone to the God he knew. His fulfillment of all prophecy pertaining to the messiah was so his God would be honored and humanity may likewise have their relationship with their Creator restored.

He loved truth and spoke the truth in love. His ability to reveal His Father’s goodness through words and actions was a story-line without end. The apostle John writes in his gospel that you couldn’t write enough books to outline them all.

He didn’t pursue wealth, marriage, fame, nor power during time on earth. Instead, he was true to himself, his mission, and his God. He knew where he came from, where he was going, and the road of suffering he would have to endure. Yet he didn’t have a daily pity party but trusted in Him who he loved and knew He was loved by Him; him being his Father and our Father, God Almighty.

He didn’t point people to Scripture but pointed Scripture to His Father. In his prayer the evening he was being betrayed, he acknowledges his accomplishment of revealing His God to others so others may also come to know Him. His entire life and mission included making the love of God known.

Do you think maybe there is more to the X-mas story than just a baby being born so he may die for mankind? Is it possible Jesus came to also reveal what a real human fulfilled life looks like?

Could it also be possible, experiencing and knowing real love is the fulfillment of our potential?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

*  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
*  Great Business Emulates a Good God
*  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
*  Simply The Messenger
*  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2019 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved