Keep Your Priorities. Whenever I have speaking engagements on the topic of life balance, I actually get out of balance because it is one more thing for me to prepare for. When I start feeling overwhelmed it is time to remind myself what I teach… that balance is a daily prayer. In addition, I remember what my priorities are in life: my faith, my family, my work, and then everything else. This helps me to refocus and only do the things I consider most important. Today I want to share with you a devotional from my book that reminds us about keeping our priorities in order. Enjoy!

Keep God at the Top of Your Priorities
# 6
1 John 5:21 (NLT)
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

The King James Version of this verse says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” With so many things this world offers us, we have to be careful and guard our hearts at all times from things that have the potential of taking God’s place in our hearts. We all have desires and dreams we want to pursue in our lives. Most of them are placed by God in us. However, even when those desires and dreams are from God, we have to be careful they don’t occupy our entire life. These dreams can become our idols if that’s what we pursue day and night and if we spend all of our resources on them. Things that can move us away from God are not only natural things such as money, success, fame, popularity, hobbies, or even our children; they can be also our desires, dreams, and our idols (including people we idolize). In other words, anything that takes priority over God in our lives can become our idol.

To refocus, always go back to the Word. Matthew 6:33 (KJV) says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” The key is to put God first in your life. Everything else falls into place after Him.