First Things First (2)

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, a father came up with an idea to entertain his bored eight-year-old daughter.  He tore a large map of the world into small pieces, mixed them up, and told her to put them back together like a jigsaw puzzle.  To her father’s surprise, the girl completed the puzzle in a few minutes.   “How did you do it?” the father asked.  “It was easy,” she said.  “At first I couldn’t fit all the lines and dots, and colors together on the map.  Then I saw part of a man’s face on the back of one of the pieces.  So I turned all the pieces over.  When I got the man on the back together, the world on the front took care of itself.”  This child had her priorities right.  When the person of Jesus Christ and life in relationship with Him begins to come together for us, our world gets taken care of.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.  (Proverbs 37:5-6 NIV)

God sent His son Jesus into the world to take on human flesh.  He came to redeem a sinful, broken, and screwed up world.  Jesus gives us new life and invites us to go out into the world to live in love in our relationships with others.  He desires that we have pure hearts that prioritize His way of life, His presence and His agenda.  He wants us to pray and seek Him and know healthy ways to operate in relationships, in our work environment, and in our wider world.

No one recovers alone.  No one recovers without other people.  We belong to a recovering fellowship.  We belong to a Christian community.  We walk in a hurting world.  God wants to use our lives in recovery to bring healing and hope to others but it will only be effective if we live “first things first.”  Are we living in healing, forgiveness, and surrender to God’s will?  Are we spending quality time getting to know God and opening our hearts to Him?  Have we made our lives accountable to at least one other mature Christian?  Are we looking for ways to walk in relationship with others so we can offer hope and healing to them?

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven (Lamentations 3:40-41 NIV)   

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13 NIV)

©2015 Partners in Hope