Your perspective shapes your priorities. Do you believe that to be true? Can you think of the last time you defined your priorities based on what you saw or where you were? When the Messiah walked with his disciples, he constantly reminded them to maintain their perspective as they traveled. Why? Our vision and our values are interconnected in a way that allows us to either be built by our perspective or blindsided by poor prioritization. Jesus understood this; that’s why in Matthew 6:33 and Luke 12:31 he commanded us to “seek first.” Seeking first means that we must set our priorities. The Lord God goes further to explain and direct us as to where our priorities are supposed to be. In Matthew 6, we are commanded to seek first the Kingdom of Yah and His righteousness.
What does that mean? How do we seek first the kingdom and righteousness? In Luke 17, Jesus explains that Kingdom of God is in the midst of us, it is the way that we choose to see, share and serve others. In the simplest sense, it’s love. This means that our priorities should be centered around love. What reflects love for self and love for others. Self love is central to living in the goodness, righteousness and truth that we are called to possess. Love is a commandment, it’s the way in which we honor God and our purpose.
So what does this have to do with priorities? Whether you are setting your priorities for the day, week, month or year the objective has to be love. Love for self and others. In the span of a day you may have multiple tasks to accomplish. The way you decide what tasks get your attention is based on a number of factors: the immediacy of attention required or time sensitivity, value, amount of energy required, and impact. When you account for the fact that perspective shapes our priorities this becomes clearer. If your vision or sight isn’t set on loving yourself and others and your perspective isn’t on living in your purpose, then what you prioritize will often be in the opposite direction of what brings you fulfillment, peace and goodness.
When we allow people, places or things that don’t reflect self love to be our priority we end up blindsided by distractions that take away from our time and deplete us of peace and goodness. Seeking first means that you own and hone your ability to sow and invest time into yourself without feeling guilty or shameful, and you build others around you by using your gifts and talents to impact their lives through what you share and choosing to see and speak to their value.
In this moment, what can you do to give yourself the love and goodness you deserve? How can you shift or pivot your perspective so that you can best prioritize and use your time to be built and blessed?
