A Devotion by Joe G
“Making God a priority by carving time out of our day to spend with God in Prayer, devotion, and in the Word.”
November 7, 2022
Why is it important to make God a priority during our day by spending time with him in word and prayer?
Let me take you back some years ago when I used to listen to many motivational tapes. (Yes, I said tape, they were cassettes)
I’d listened to speakers like Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale, and Lee Iacocca.
Lee Iacocca was the former president of Ford Motor Company. He joined Ford in 1946 and was very influential in developing the Ford Mustang in the 1960s.
In the 1980s, Lee Iacocca became the CEO of Chrysler, bringing the company back from bankruptcy.
To this day, I still remember something he said that changed his life. So, I’ve tried to emulate it in my own.
Lee said this:
God comes 1st, Family comes 2nd, Work comes 3rd, Friends come 4th, and everything else comes after that.
Lee Iacocca said that everything in his life changed when he adopted this philosophy. On the negative side, he lost many of his so-called friends because they were no longer his top priority.
Let’s take a moment to break these priorities down:
God comes first. This means your personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior come first. That’s why it’s so important to spend time in prayer and devotion with Him.
Pastor Robert Morris said: “You’ll never be able to put God first in areas of your life if you don’t put prayer first. The power to put God first comes from prayer.”
Prayer is our time with God. It should be a conversation with your best friend. The more we talk to God through prayer, the closer we are to him.
Even Jesus took time out to pray to God the Father.
The list continues with Family as the second item. No, we don’t leave our Family in the dust behind God. Remember, God coming first is about your relationship with Him.
Our relationship with our Family needs to be strong, loving, nurturing, and caring. We don’t stop doing for and loving our Family because God comes first.
Just remember, God is our creator, Jesus is our Savior, and someday we will go home to be with God. So why wouldn’t He be our priority?
Here comes the hard one. Work comes third. While working in the retail food industry for years, my Work came first. I worked long, demanding hours, and my Family and God were left far behind.
If we put Work ahead of God and our Family, perhaps it’s time to reassess our priorities and re-evaluate our jobs.
I have some friends who have two children, a son and a daughter. Both of the kids were in my youth group. The young man is now in his second year of college, and their daughter is in high school. Their support for their kids is phenomenal. They plan a dad/son and a mom/daughter trip each year and are involved in many of their kids’ school and extra-curricular activities. Yet, they maintain an outstanding balance of church, love of God, work, Family, and friends. Oh, and by the way, their daughter self-published two children’s books before she even got to high school.
The fourth item on the list I just mentioned is that friends come fourth.
Time and relationships with friends come after God, Family, and Work.
What’s left? Everything else, and it all comes after the first four.
Give it a try! Take time to prioritize what should be important in your life.
It won’t be perfect. Sometimes your job will demand you’re there and not at your kids’ ballgame. That’s ok. Do the best you can. But strive every day to do better. God, Family, Work, Friends, and everything else.
Let’s circle back to prayer, devotions, and reading the Bible.
Where, during your day, do or can you make time for God? Even Jesus took time to go off by himself and pray.
After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
And from there, Jesus taught His disciples what we call the Lord’s Prayer.
I realize that everyone’s schedule is different. Can you take ten minutes to read a Bible verse and pray before Work? After Work? How about before bed? What does your lunch hour look like? How about listening to Christian Radio or soothing background music and praying in your car?
I’m retired, so I get up pretty early every day. I make coffee, grab my cup of morning Joe and my cell phone, and I go into my home office and spend an hour or so in prayer and reading devotions and the Bible. My wife and I pray at every meal, including when we go out (Let the people stare. You’re conversing with your creator.) I also pray short prayers throughout the day, asking God for help where I need it and thanking Him for His many blessings and what He wants me to do for Him.
Take a few minutes today and ask God when a good time is to spend with Him each day. Do you have a quiet spot at home, or maybe your car is the place for you? I sometimes go to Starbucks and read and pray. I have a friend that goes to the beach every Friday and does the same thing.
Here’s what Jesus says in Matthew 6 about Location and how you should pray:
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
About now, you’re saying to yourself, that’s a lot of stuff to digest and process, Joe. And you’re exactly right. So that’s why it’s that time for me to hit the pause button.
One last thing. Here’s something to think about. How should I pray? What do I talk to God about? Are there prayer rules?
Please join me in prayer.
Dear Lord. Sometimes it’s hard to prioritize and find time to spend with you in prayer and in the word. Please, help us to find that time. Please help us to make you and our relationship with you a priority. Thank you for your many blessings Lord, especially the gift of your Son Jesus, who saved us from sin through His death on the cross.
Amen
Have a Blessed day!
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