by : Larry Amon
Many Christians seem to get their priorities mixed up concerning these areas of their life. God comes first not only because He knows what’s best for us including everything else on the list but more importantly because He created us. Your family comes next because they are not only what you work for but they add meaning to your life in a way that work can not. After this work is some where down the list but not necessarily third on the list. Work needs to be a priority to provide for your financial needs with the understanding that God is really the one who provides all our needs including our jobs.
God should be first in your life but it should also be understand that God will not ask you to abandon what he has given you responsibility over for something else. For example, God will not contradict Himself. He will not give you a family and then have you leave them to do His work. Marriage is a lifelong commitment and in the Bible Paul talks about the benefits of being single. One benefit is that you can serve God without being tied to a family. This doesn’t mean that married people can not serve God, it’s just in a different way. This also does not mean that marriage is bad but that both married and single people are called to serve God even though it may be in different ways.
In our society even though we know work should not be our first or even second love it frequently takes that place. The reason for this is that because work can be completed in easily observed and measured steps with predictable positive results, people find satisfaction in that. Work may be easy compared to relationships, but work does not love you nor does it have the capacity to love you. Work should be a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. People also fall into this trap when their work is for God. But we learn from Mary and Martha that spending time with God is better than spending time for God.
