February 8, 2012
Today’s Text: Matthew 6:24-33
Today’s Key Thought: A wise steward of their time prioritizes their time.
In today’s text Jesus is preaching and teaching. He tells his audience not to worry about how they will get food, get clothing or make money. Here is my question: Does this literally mean that Jesus was telling them not to plan? Of course not! Jesus was not teaching against planning, rather He was teaching against making these temporary earthly issues the only things that we think about to the degree that this is what our lives become. Jesus tells them that God knows what we need and then he goes on to tell them this incredible verse: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jesus says that we need to spend much more time thinking about Him and His kingdom than we think about ourselves and our kingdom.
Application:
How does this apply to our time? Well according to Jesus we’ve got to prioritize some things over others. We ought to prioritize things that are eternal over things that are temporary. As you pay attention and take account of your time, are you seeing a trend towards prioritizing godly things or temporary things?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
Alot of people keep temporary things with them that they know there not gonna have they put everything in it and love it like its there baby weather it’s an iPod touch or a laptop or money they put everything in it, but we need to relieze that when we go up to heaven we can’t take those things up there with us, they won’t be up there…they are just temporary stuff that 5, 10, or 30 years where gonna forget about them or lose em or even sell them for something better, sell them for what’s in style that year. We need to keep things that are eternal things were gonna have forever like our faith in god and our love to worship him we need to keep that I’m our heart and alot more that will last forever. I’m kinda seeing a trend if both godly and temporary things. We need to start thinking about Jesus things and he’s kingdom and not our things and our kingdoms because our life down here is gonna be gone so let’s nt hold on to it to much because we’re not gonna have it later.
Jesus wants us to spend our time in eternal things like reading the bible, praying every day, and going to church. He wants us to think about stuff In heaven not the things that we like Mafalda said will not even remember in 5,10,30 years. Jesus will take care of the things that we need here on earth 🙂
Mackenzie… I’m sosos glad tht ur finally getting back on!!! Proud of u girl!! 🙂
I’m with ya Mackenzie! He’s saying it’s ok to plan but not make that our main focus. We definitely need to focus more on him than earthly things. Well I love u guys see you tonite! Oh and by the way, I have something to tell u guys and I think you’ll be pretty happy 🙂
There r godly values according to the bible tht we have.. The bible for example… But maybe some ungodly things or temporary.. Like tv.. And stuff we have. I mean the things tht we have we shouldn’t treasure over god.. We can’t let those things like our phones.. Get a hold I out hearts.. Cuz when we go to heaven our phones ain’t coming with us!! Not our jewelry, our sports team, & everything. It’s not coming with us so we shouldn’t treasure them instead of godly hings such as god. 🙂 c u guys later!! Love u!!! ;)))
When I don’t plan naturally temperal things take place over eternal. When I plan I am better at prioritizing eternal things. For me being a wife and a mother include things I have been called to. Eternal things aren’t just done at church. We can do them everywhere. Sometimes I get self focused and forget to take the time to teach my daughter the right things at that moment. Time with her is precious and must be used to the fullest. But full also doesn’t mean busy. For me I am just working on being proactive and it causes me to be productive. It’s been great!
We definitely need to be proactive in prioritizing our time for eternal things. Megan is so right when she says that we will have a natural tendency towards the temporal, if we aren’t deliberate about planning eternally. I see this in my life all the time. I get so busy being a wife, mother, and daughter MY WAY, and I don’t spend enough time seeking God how to do all those things HIS WAY. I always notice a difference when I am doing things for God vs doing things for myself. Life can get so busy and it’s easy to loose track of time. So I do agree it is could to track how we are spending our time and learn from it.
Well before I really started living for the Lord I did spend most of my time with temporary things but the more I get into God’s word the more I start caring more about God and his kingdom instead of mine.
We need to not worry about worldly things as much as eternal things. God has a plan for our futures and we need to trust Him. I can get wrapped up in worldly things but this says that if I focus on eternal things God will take care of what I need.
I definitely spend more time thinking about the things here on earth, rather than the things of Heaven. And it is something I need to work on. I love Matthew 6:33, one of my favorite verses! It’s not bad to plan, but I can so caught up in planning my life here on earth that #1 I forget to include God in my plans and #2 I focus more on worldly things instead of Godly things. But the verse says Seek first (not second or third!) the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. I think one of the reasons that I don’t manage my time well is because I get too caught up on things here and now, and I don’t even think about Heaven and the stuff that happens after life on earth. If I’m more focused on God and His kingdom, that will reflect the choices I make concerning what I do with my time.
Great devotion today, see you guys tonight! 🙂
Sometimes we can get so caught up in planning that, that becomes our life. So He isn’t trying to tell us not to plan, but that we don’t need to be so consumed with planning for earthly, temporal things because God will take care of it. We need to invest in spiritual things. If we do that then God will basically take care of the rest. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added onto you” Go after and plan for things of God then He’ll bless you for doing what He wants. You do what He wants and then “all these things will be added onto you” He’ll pour on the blessings. That goes back to having wisdom. Use His wisdom, do what He wants= Lots of blessings. It’s really simple. Be focused on Him and then temporal stuff just comes along as a bonus! 😉
I don’t always have Him on the top of my to-do list for the day….so I need to make sure I’m planning out my time better and that what “I” plan is really God’s plan. Gotta give Him the chair 😉 I hope all of you are planning your time filled with what God wants for you. It can be a struggle sometimes with everything tugging at you in different directions. Love you guys and see you tonight!