The Main Things

John 14:21, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

One day while I was teaching Sunday School I shared with the class the fact that I was not passionate about keeping a tidy house, and then I made this statement in my defense, "I bet I have read twenty books on organizing." A Sunday School class member who has a reputation for keeping her house neat and tidy at all times spoke up and asked, "Why are you reading all those books? Why don't you just do it?" Her questions startled me into considering why I didn't "just do it." Then I confessed, both to myself and to the class, "I read all those books because I love to read and I hate to clean." Reading about cleaning and organizing was actually a matter of deluding myself into thinking I was dealing with the issue of clutter in my house, although nothing really changed. It was a technique to avoid doing the work that needed to be done.

It has accurately been said that, "The good is often the enemy of the best." It's very easy for us to become sidetracked. It's absolutely amazing how many things I can accomplish when I'm trying to avoid doing the thing or things I should really be doing.

We can be so busy in our spiritual lives that we avoid doing the things that God really wants us to do. We tend to major on the minors. We need to keep the main things the main things. God's priorities for us should be our priorities. Hopefully we will really go about doing the Master's business rather than doing busy work of our own choosing.

Father, my prayer for all of us is that we will each walk in the center of Your will for our lives, guided and empowered by Your Holy Spirit. Minister through us so we can be effective servants in Your kingdom. Amen.