In his book, First Things First, author Steven Covey employs two images to emphasize living by priorities--a clock and a compass. The clock represents our daily commitments, appointments, schedules and activities. The compass represents our vision, values, principals, conscience, and direction. For most of us, there is a huge gap between the two. Most of us will readily admit that we want to live by certain priorities, but that really isn't reflected in our daily agendas.
"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe." 1 Timothy 4:7-10.
Paul wrote to Timothy from prison instructing him on how to continue leading the church, but more importantly, how to continue leading himself. The teachings that Paul wrote to Timothy still have great value for us today. Paul told Timothy to "train himself to be godly." Paul was instructing Timothy to make sure that he had his priorities in order. Timothy had appointments, schedules, and activities the same as we do. However, if he was going to continue to lead the church, to lead himself, he was going to have to train himself to be godly. In other words, he was going to have to exercise his faith.
How do we exercise our faith? How do we train ourselves to be godly? Well, we need to start with the daily reading of God's Word--the Bible! Nothing is more important for shaping our moral and social behavior than the Bible, however, statistics say the only 18 percent of all of us read our Bible daily! That is very tragic and sad. The Bible is our guide, our instruction book for attaining a life that is holy and pleasing to God. Many of our Bible's sit on tables, or nightstands, or others places, hardly ever opened and dust covered. In it's pages are the keys to life. The Bible is the one book that sustains itself, compliments itself, upholds itself throughout all generations. The Bible is the Word of God written down for us to teach us, guide us and provide us with all we need to live a fulfilling life!
No one ever accomplishes a goal by simply writing it down. Whenever we determine to change something in our lives, we face an incredible war with inertia. There are too many of us that go to sleep with so much on our minds that our rest is full of torment and trouble. We then wake with the mindset that this or that needs to be done first and we simply place the most important thing to the side--our time with our Lord! There are many of us that wake to face the day with an agenda that does not include God until our day comes to a close. There is a name for this--it is called "Urgency Addiction!" It is described as the self-destructive behavior that temporarily fills the void created by our unmet needs.
Friends, most of us are masters at responding to urgent things. But, the question to be asked is: have we learned to know the difference between the urgent things and the important things? I believe from what I have seen-- the more urgency we have in our lives the less importance we have. Friends, we have to be ruthless in pushing some of the urgent things away to create an environment for the important things. Ephesians 4:23 says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How do we do that if we make the urgent things take precedence over the important? If we continue to do this, we will never succeed in being the kind of person that God wants us to be. There is no way to be holy except to take time for it!
In verse 7 of this Scripture, in the King James version, the word used in place of "train" is "exercise". In the Greek, the word is "Gymnatsio", from which we get our word gymnasium. I bring this to our attention as the key for us to closing the gap between our clock and compass is spiritual discipline! We have to take responsibility and align our clocks with our compasses. If we want to learn to do first things first, we have to start with making time with our Lord and His Word our number one priority! If we do this, we will notice that all other things in our lives will fall into there respective places! Are we prepared to respond to the challenge of change? Are we prepared to replace the urgent with the important?
May God Richly Bless You Today!! H Trent!
"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe." 1 Timothy 4:7-10.
Paul wrote to Timothy from prison instructing him on how to continue leading the church, but more importantly, how to continue leading himself. The teachings that Paul wrote to Timothy still have great value for us today. Paul told Timothy to "train himself to be godly." Paul was instructing Timothy to make sure that he had his priorities in order. Timothy had appointments, schedules, and activities the same as we do. However, if he was going to continue to lead the church, to lead himself, he was going to have to train himself to be godly. In other words, he was going to have to exercise his faith.
How do we exercise our faith? How do we train ourselves to be godly? Well, we need to start with the daily reading of God's Word--the Bible! Nothing is more important for shaping our moral and social behavior than the Bible, however, statistics say the only 18 percent of all of us read our Bible daily! That is very tragic and sad. The Bible is our guide, our instruction book for attaining a life that is holy and pleasing to God. Many of our Bible's sit on tables, or nightstands, or others places, hardly ever opened and dust covered. In it's pages are the keys to life. The Bible is the one book that sustains itself, compliments itself, upholds itself throughout all generations. The Bible is the Word of God written down for us to teach us, guide us and provide us with all we need to live a fulfilling life!
No one ever accomplishes a goal by simply writing it down. Whenever we determine to change something in our lives, we face an incredible war with inertia. There are too many of us that go to sleep with so much on our minds that our rest is full of torment and trouble. We then wake with the mindset that this or that needs to be done first and we simply place the most important thing to the side--our time with our Lord! There are many of us that wake to face the day with an agenda that does not include God until our day comes to a close. There is a name for this--it is called "Urgency Addiction!" It is described as the self-destructive behavior that temporarily fills the void created by our unmet needs.
Friends, most of us are masters at responding to urgent things. But, the question to be asked is: have we learned to know the difference between the urgent things and the important things? I believe from what I have seen-- the more urgency we have in our lives the less importance we have. Friends, we have to be ruthless in pushing some of the urgent things away to create an environment for the important things. Ephesians 4:23 says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How do we do that if we make the urgent things take precedence over the important? If we continue to do this, we will never succeed in being the kind of person that God wants us to be. There is no way to be holy except to take time for it!
In verse 7 of this Scripture, in the King James version, the word used in place of "train" is "exercise". In the Greek, the word is "Gymnatsio", from which we get our word gymnasium. I bring this to our attention as the key for us to closing the gap between our clock and compass is spiritual discipline! We have to take responsibility and align our clocks with our compasses. If we want to learn to do first things first, we have to start with making time with our Lord and His Word our number one priority! If we do this, we will notice that all other things in our lives will fall into there respective places! Are we prepared to respond to the challenge of change? Are we prepared to replace the urgent with the important?
May God Richly Bless You Today!! H Trent!
This posting helped me to realize that the reason my life is a mess is because my priorties are a mess. Harold, thank you for opening my eyes and the eyes of others through your teachings! May God continue to work through you to reach out to others!
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