A Heart for God’s Priorities

There was a student who turned in an assignment to his professor.  She had worked long hours late into the night to prepare for, write, rewrite, and complete the project, putting on the finishing touches that morning.  The professor carefully examined the work, noting the excellence of the endeavor, attention to detail, and diligence which had been applied.  “But,” the professor hesitated, “this was not the assignment I gave you!”  God wants us to have a heart for His priorities, and He isn’t going to leave us in the dark as to what those are.  Certainly there are principles that apply to all of us that guide our overall priorities, but God has specific assignments for each of us that we cannot discover unless we are living according to His priorities and specifics for our lives.  No matter how well we do something, it doesn’t really count for much if we’re doing someone else’s assignment.  “Well done, good and faithful servant” is reserved for those who are faithful to do what their master has entrusted them to do.

Seeking and Steeping

You’ve probably heard that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!  A key verse to living according to God’s priorities is Matthew 6:33.

NLT – “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

GWT – “First, be concerned about his kingdom and what has his approval. Then all these things will be provided for you.”

The Message – “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

To “steep” something requires 3 main elements as I see it:

• Water
• The element that is desired to be absorbed
• Time

There’s a clear parallel here with having a heart for God’s priorities.  Water often represents the Word of God and the Presence of God, Holy Spirit.  The element that Jesus exhorts us to absorb is God’s righteousness, i.e. that which has His approval.  God transcends time; it is we who need to set aside time to seek God’s face, listen to His voice, and receive into our minds and hearts what He wants to give us.  We can be in a posture of seeking the Lord by waiting on God, through solitude, times of stillness, quiet time, meditation, devotions . . . the main element I’m referring to is setting aside time in which my attention is focused on being with God, not necessarily talking, not necessarily reading, not necessarily doing anything.  In freedom He may direct me to read this or that passage of Scripture, to sing a song of praise, to glean wisdom from another saint, to intercede for a loved one . . . but all these things flow from the primary purpose, which is to simply adore Christ.

I want to read to you an excerpt from the July 16^th installment of “Sparkling Gems”, a devotional which many of our staff & board members have been using this past year:

“If you don’t mortify the flesh by the power of God’s Spirit, it won’t be long until you are preoccupied with other things that steal the devotion and passion that should belong only to Jesus Christ.  If you’re not extremely careful, your family, spouse, parents, children, friends, job, dream or vision, profession, possessions, school, church activities, or even your own talents will unintentionally become the focus of your worship and service.  You’ll find yourself serving in your own self-consumed priesthood, giving your best effort and your undivided attention to the fulfillment of your own self-interests . . . Make sure that Jesus remains the primary focus of your life.  God isn’t against you possessing any of the things mentioned above, but God is against any of those things possessing you!”

Let me share with you an example of something good that more or less possessed me, in that I became a slave to it.  Please note that this is not a formula for any of you, it’s just something personal that the Lord has spoken to me about.  I’d like to read to you what I wrote in 2008 in one of our weekly emails back to everyone at the Atlanta Vineyard when we lived in Russia:

Write it Down

Recently I had an epiphany (in the middle of a mundane task, which seems to be how most epiphanies occur).  I suddenly realized that I am more like biblical Paul than David.  Let me explain . . . when I was about 10 years old, I began a journal, and continued this daily discipline for over 20 years.  And then following a very intense period of brokenness and healing, it changed.  I transitioned to journaling only when something fairly significant occurred, and didn’t journal day-to-day things anymore.  Initially I thought maybe I’d just burned out, but eventually realized there was more to it than that.  There was a sense of incompleteness, but journaling more wasn’t the answer.  This is where the epiphany comes in.  David journaled.  The book of Psalms is largely David’s private journal, as he recorded his innermost thoughts, struggles and victories, joys and sorrows, conversations with God.  My understanding of God, life, and myself has been greatly enriched by his writings!  His journal is a prayer book, a source of hope, a lyric sheet, and much more!  Maybe Paul journaled, too, but what we know of Paul is that he was a letter-writer.  He wrote to others what was on his heart, often in order to encourage them or spur them on.

Aha!

I’ve been a letter-writer all my life!  As a teenager, I corresponded with 72 penpals, 20 of whom I wrote to every week.  I still love to correspond with people, especially to bring encouragement.  OK, so what I’m learning is this.  Firstly, it’s very important to write it down.  Moses wrote down everything the Lord had said (Exodus 24:3).  We all forget stuff – some of us forget details more readily, others forget emotions, a few forget most everything.  The most important thing is to record what God speaks to us.  There are lots of things we could write down that would be interesting to remember, but not likely to significantly affect the course of our lives if we don’t refer back to them.  But when God speaks to us, it’s crucial to write it down, think about it, remember it, do it, and read it again when we doubt or get discouraged.  Incidentally, I did not think I heard much from God for many years.  In retrospect, He did speak to me quite a lot, but I didn’t perceive it, largely because I wanted to define how He should speak to me.  I had to learn to be still, wait, rest, listen, be open.  I needed to learn to pay attention (“For God does speak – now one way, now another” Job 33:14).  I’m still learning.  Secondly, and here’s where I needed an epiphany – how we write it down can vary.  Some of us tend to be more like David, some are more like Paul, both in the way we process things, and in the way we share with others.  Both disciplines are needed for our own growth AND for the strengthening of the body of Christ.  We can do both, whether we consider ourselves more of a David or a Paul . . . journaling (setting aside time to write down and think about what the Lord speaks to us), and writing letters (sharing some nuggets with others).  Both habits not only help us to grow in faith and confidence, but God will bring encouragement, comfort, and hope to others as we share our treasures and our stories.

Talking about priorities is meant to give us knowledge, skills, and motivation as we follow after God.

Planning

Another important key in living according to God’s priorities is having a plan.  If you don’t plan your day, someone else will be happy to plan it for you.  God has a wonderful plan for your life . . . and so does everyone else!

Because our lives are complex and demanding, we need a plan if we are to live by God’s priorities and obey His call to us.  Henry David Thoreau said, “In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.”  Proverbs 14:22 (NIV) says, “Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.”  When we live according to God’s order for priorities, it’s easier and simpler to make day-to-day, moment-by-moment decisions.  E.g. if we’re in the middle of our quiet time or reading a story to a child and the phone rings, we can let voice mail get the call and not allow the phone to dictate what’s most important at that moment.

Having our priorities in God’s order brings order to our cluttered lives and enables us to see more clearly.  The tyranny of the urgent will beat on our doors day and night if we allow it.  When the storms of life start to rage, God’s unchangeable Word gives us sure guidance.  God-directed priorities help us to make decisions about how to spend our time, resources, and energy.  They are not meant to be rigid guidelines, but to help us gain greater control over our lives.

Find a system that works for you.  I have found that it works best for me if I am proactive about scheduling high priority items, rather than trying to prioritize a long list of items (that doesn’t work well with my personality!)  Balance between planning and being Spirit-led, willing to turn on a dime if God says to.

I’d like to share another personal story . . . Back in 1986, I was a young married Christian woman working at a small software company, very much a corporate environment.  There were 40 employees in the company in two divisions – there were 5 in my division – my boss Pat (male), David, David, Jeff, and me.  Three separate issues arose at work.  My boss pressured me to work evenings and weekends.  He also wanted me to agree to share a room with a male coworker when on business trips (in order to cut costs).  He also assigned me to a project for a cigarette company.  The first year of our marriage, I was the sole breadwinner as Paul was pursuing doctoral studies.  The one thing that helped us the most in making decisions concerning each of these issues was taking a look at our priorities in the light of God’s word.  We prayed, we studied the Bible, we asked godly friends for counsel, and as a result of all this we made a simple ordered list of priorities – God, family, church, work.  I can still see that little list in my mind’s eye.  It may seem like a tiny thing, but it was a huge revelation to me at the time.  Prior to making a firm and clear decision as to what our priorities were, I would stress internally over saying “no” to any request from my boss or other authority figure (probably because in my family of origin there was an authoritarian atmosphere where “no” was not an option!).  But having a clear and united policy helped me to simply, undramatically, and without intimidation, say “no” to requests that skewed priorities.  I explained to my boss that I would not work on Sundays because that was a day that we set aside to worship God.  I would not work on Saturdays because that was our family day.  I was flexible about working a little overtime, but requested that I be able to sit down and eat dinner with Paul each evening.  I point blank refused to room with a male coworker.  I also refused to support an industry that contributes to the detriment and deaths of so many adults, teens, and children, so said “no” to the cigarette company assignment.  I attempted to convey my responses with a submissive and humble attitude that emphasized my convictions about what I believed were God-directed priorities – I’m sure I mentioned that because I had lots of conversations about the Lord with my co-workers, only one of whom was a believer.  My boss amazingly was ok with my priorities (although this is certainly not a guarantee!) – he honored my stance, and ended up asking some of my coworkers to do what he’d asked me to do, which equally amazingly ended up working out fine for everyone.  There were no hard feelings between any of us.  Incidentally, although my male coworkers urged me to say no to my boss’s clearly sexist request that I as the sole female take minutes at our team meetings, I said yes because I felt it was a small price to pay for something that would benefit the entire team.  Plus I said no to so many of his big requests that it was also a matter of give-and-take.

It’s been said that what we value the most is what we will devote our time, energy, and finances to.  Find what works best for your personality and situation, and go for it.  For me, if something is not on my calendar, it doesn’t get done.  I have discovered that there is a lot more freedom in my life if I put the most important things on my schedule and tackle those first.  I also leave a lot of space in my calendar and am learning that God seems to show up more often “along the journey” than at planned times.  But if I didn’t have anything scheduled at all, I could easily spend all my time dealing with one crisis after another – there is always someone or something pulling on me.  No matter how busy life is, I get alone with God every day to read the Bible, pray, and worship Him in song.  These are precious times!  Spending time with the Lord is primarily a relationship, but it is also a discipline.  The same could be said for any relationship – if we want our relationships to grow, we need to invest time and energy into them.  In our family we schedule time each week for Paul and me to be alone together, time for Paul and I to be with our children one-on-one, and family time.  These are too important to be left to chance, because other things will always encroach on our time.  How much more valuable is our relationship with our Creator and the Lover of our souls.  Incidentally, I have found that as I order my priorities, discipline myself, and dedicate the first and best part of each day to God in an unhurried manner, I seem to be able to complete the day’s tasks with greater ease, because God gives me wisdom and strength and everything else I need.

One final word about planning . . . I don’t think Jesus got a play-by-play plan from the Father each morning – “today, I’m going to send you a woman with an issue of blood – she will touch your cloak and then I want you to turn and heal her . . .”  I think Jesus presented His life afresh each day and paid attention to what the Father was telling Him as He went along.  Let’s not err by either being too planned or too loosey-goosey.

Flexibility

Another key principle in living according to God’s priorities is flexibility.  Let’s read Luke 8:41 – 55a:

41Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,^d but no one could heal her. 44She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

45“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

46But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

47Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

49While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher any more.”

50Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

51When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. 52Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

53They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up.

Notice that although Jesus was on His way to one assignment, He was flexible and paused to minister to someone else along the way.  He never stopped paying attention to what the Father was doing.

A lesson for us in this is to hone the art of evaluating along the way.  With each new event, crisis, or person, we can ask ourselves what the real priority is for that moment.

Intentional diligence

Have you ever visited a home that had a beautiful garden with sights and smells that delighted your senses?  There’s something about flowers and birds and butterflies and ponds and arbors and shady benches that God uses to fill our hearts with joy and restore our souls.  Needless to say, something that lovely is certainly no accident and didn’t happen instantaneously.  Much time and attention goes into creating a lovely garden retreat, and much time and effort goes into maintaining and improving such a beautiful place . . . feeding, tilling, watering, training.  Each of these is a crucial task . . . and then there’s pruning, which is removing anything that would hinder the formation and development of flowers or fruit.  People enjoy a place of great beauty because of someone’s labor of love.  Similarly, people enjoy the beauty in our lives, our families, and our homes when we work in that same diligent and deliberate way.  When we take seriously our assignments from God, He blesses our obedience, and the resulting growth is astounding.  Oh, there are pleasant tasks and bright moments, but there is also plain old hard work – work that may be unexciting but gives birth to God’s blessings.

As we commit ourselves to following hard and close after God (as David did in Psalm 63:8) and doing His will (Acts 13 :22), let’s consider what we can do to nurture, prune, and train our hearts so that we can enjoy the lovely fruit God intends His people to know when they honor Him.  What can we do to place ourselves before God so that we can know His beauty and serenity in our hearts and under our roofs?

One day at a time

The first challenge we face is gaining control of one day – today.  We must tackle the day at hand.  Find a system that works for you.  I use outlook.  Share what works for you . . .

Ask God each evening to help you lie down and sleep in peace and trust Him to order your day the next day.  Ask God each morning to guide and bless your day – His day.  Pausing for a few minutes at the beginning and end of each day helps us to live in peace and reduces the number of surprise stressors like, “oh no, trash truck is coming – let’s run the can up to the street” or “what do you mean you need a sack lunch today?” or “a root canal – today?”

Be fully present in the present

Love the person right in front of you – don’t miss divine appointments

Sabbath

Margin

Rest

Refreshment, fun, laughter

Balance, moderation

Identity

It’s important that we take a hard look at ourselves and ask, “Are there places where I’m getting my identity out of what I do?”  One way to expose sources of identity is to imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t do a certain thing for 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years, forever?  Are we willing to go when God says go, to change when He says change, to build when He says to build, to tear down when He says to tear down.

Another personal story . . . in 2007 God called Paul and me to take our family to live in Russia for a season.  It was a huge joy to do so, logistically huge as you can imagine, but God guided and provided for us every step of the way.  At the time when He said “go” I was leading two very successful groups – prayer ministry here at the Atlanta Vineyard, and a home school math club in our basement.  I had lead the prayer ministry for 4 years; the math club for 5; and had basically given birth to both of them.  It’s super hard and painful to let go of something you’ve birthed!  No matter how secure we are in our identity in Christ, all of us have a tendency to derive some sense of worth from what we do.  I believe one of the things the Lord will do is move us around in roles and ministries and so forth in order to keep us from getting our identity from other things.  We must be willing to hold whatever God has given us with open palms.  Anyway, we moved forward in obedience to what God had clearly shown us.  One of the first questions church leaders had for me was – who is going to lead prayer ministry?  We trusted that God would raise up leaders for both that and math club, and sure enough, He is so faithful that He provided amazing leaders with vision and passion and gifts and experience that fit perfectly.  I submitted Nancy Penton’s name to church leadership, and after they agreed, I began a more intentional mentoring relationship regarding prayer ministry, although we have had a mutual mentoring relationship for many years now.  Prayer ministry has gone through many phases and stages, and remains one of the strengths and foundational pillars of the Atlanta Vineyard.  I invited the person that God placed on my heart to take over math club – 4 years later the club is still going strong – they continue to call themselves “Sculley Academy Math Club” and continue to win trophies at state and national competitions.

Asking

In order to determine God’s priorities for our lives, we need to go to God, the Bible, and wise counselors . . . ask this question – “What are God’s priorities for my life?”  It will not look exactly the same to each of us, but the number one spot will always belong to God.  About Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me”, Clarke’s commentary says, “This commandment prohibits every species of mental idolatry, and all inordinate attachment to earthly and sensible things. As God is the fountain of happiness, and no intelligent creature can be happy but through him, whoever seeks happiness in the creature is necessarily an idolater; as he puts the creature in the place of the Creator, expecting that from the gratification of his passions, in the use or abuse of earthly things, which is to be found in God alone. The very first commandment of the whole series is divinely calculated to prevent man’s misery and promote his happiness, by taking him off from all false dependence, and leading him to God himself, the fountain of all good.”

David cried out to God in Psalm 63:1 (NLT), “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.”

Without a regular time with God, your Ultimate Priority, your life will be a parched and weary land, and everything and everyone in it – including you – will suffer.

Do you think your priorities are in order?  Does your husband think so?  Do your children think so?  Do others close to you think so?  Be honest.  And be brave enough to make some serious changes.

Make a list

Let’s make a short and simple list of our priorities and evaluate how we’re doing.  (pause to do so)

Now we can ask ourselves some questions.  Am I neglecting any of my priority people – my husband or my children?  Is my home blossoming into a haven of rest, refreshment, beauty, and order to me and my loved ones?  Am I using the firstfruits of my time to be filled spiritually so that I can serve God and His people?  When I am with other people, are they refreshed by me, receiving out of the overflowing refreshment I find in the Lord?  Am I seeking first things first – every day?

Pray for and practice God’s priorities

Here are some ideas of how to pray for and practice God’s priorities in our lives:

God – Lord, what can I do today to live out the fact that You are the Ultimate Priority of my life?  As we pray, God will lead us to list certain actions like pray, read His Word, memorize Scripture, walk with Him, be aware that He is present with us minute by minute.

Husband – write the name of your husband if you have one.  “God, what can I do today to let Paul know he is my most important human priority?”  e.g. Choose to be available when you are both home together, both emotionally and physically.  Make plans for a special date night.  Sew on that button he asked about.  Fix his favorite meals.  Help him with his pet projects.

Children – “Lord, what can I do today for <list each one> to let them know that other than my husband, they are more important than all the other people in my life?  What can I do to communicate to each one individually how special they are to me?  How can I show each of them my love?”  Many times the answers to this question might be, “sweet speech”, “kindness”, “a servant spirit”, “no nagging.”  It may include setting aside a special time of playing or reading, a special love note, a favorite treat, a special date, emails / texts, care packages, encouragement.  The loving and praying and planning never cease no matter how old our children are.  And then . . . grandchildren . . .

Home – Everyone lives somewhere.  Praying about homemaking lifts it out of the physical realm and transports it into the spiritual.  “Lord, what can I do today regarding my home?  What can I do today to make our home a little bit of heaven, our own home sweet home.”  E.g. “be faithful in daily cleaning tasks”, “finish fully”, “pull out dead summer flowers to make way for fresh autumn ones”, etc.

Self – “Lord, what can I do today to grow spiritually?  In what specific ways can I prepare for future ministry?”  e.g. read, exercise, select healthful foods, complete a Bible lesson, get to bed on time, etc.

Ministry – “Lord, what can I do today to serve and minister to Your people?”  This will likely be a long list – people to call, friends and missionaries to write, lessons to plan, organizing, researching, writing, shopping, preparing food for the ill or church events, visit the sick.  Opportunities for ministry are always all around us!  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the tasks at hand, we can pray, “God, which one of these labors of love do you want me to tackle today?”

Other activities – God-given assignments found in His Word are our top priorities.  But there are other facets to life.  Living out our priorities is somewhat like an oil painting.  The artist includes the elements of a painting – background, composition, subjects, style.  The Impressionists, however, discovered that dotting an entire completed canvas with spots of another color added sparkle to the picture.  The same is true of our lives.  We start by following God’s biblical guidelines so that our lives will contain all the elements necessary for beauty.  But God, “who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17), blesses us with dots of color – with people, events, interests, desires, personalities, and challenges that add a unique sparkle.  For example, shopping for Christmas, browsing in a library or bookstore, getting together with a friend, planning a trip, replacing a pair of shoes.  These items are important, but not urgent.

Sculley family examples

Personal priorities we try to maintain (in no particular order) –

• We want someone outside our nuclear family to live with us
• Guest room in addition
• Weekly family night
• Weekly date night for Paul & me
• Regular dates one-on-one with each of our children
• Take each child on an overseas missions trip before they are teenagers
• Celebrate Christmas and Easter as a family in special ways
• Annual anniversary trip (one time it was 4 hours in Clarkston on a friend’s couch because I was heavily pregnant and on bedrest!)
• Annual family vacations
• Special ceremony & trip for each child when they turn 13
• Special celebration surrounding dedication of each child to the Lord when they were very young
• Annual birthday party for each child, celebrated with family & friends according to the age and desire of the child
• Birthday week for each member of our household (7 days of birthday presents!)

Personal priorities we’ve had in the past that we no longer do –

• For a couple of years we maintained technology-free Sundays – no tv / movies / internet . . . but we eventually caved in order to attend to the higher priority of building relationships with our tech-hungry kids – it was discouraging at first, but I made a decision not to idolize this priority but to let it go and trust God to take care of everything and everyone’s hearts!  (My family of origin tended to be rigid with little room for discussion or variation from rules)
• Tons of snuggle time with our kids in our big king-sized bed.  I still do that with our girls, but it would be just weird if we did it the same way we did when they were all little!
• I made it a priority to read a book, sing 4 songs to and pray for each of the children one-on-one at bedtime for their first 10 years.  I no longer sing their songs to them each night – sometimes upon request – but I maintain the priority of praying for each one before bed each night, often at midnight now that we have teens!

Golden days

Items we write on a list of priorities only represent dreams and desires and convictions until we put them into practice.  Scheduling helps us do just that.  Pray over and plan your day – a day you desire to live after God’s heart.  Pray over every item you feel God wants you to do.  When your time of prayer and scheduling is over, you will have a place to start for the day – a plan that reflects your priorities, a plan that enables you to be the woman after God’s own heart that you desire to be.  Proverbs 21:5 (NLT) says, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”

It’s comforting to prayerfully plan your day.  That plan is most effective when it comes as a result of much care and prayer – when it comes as a result of committing your day and its activities to God for His glory, when it comes from seeking God for guidance on the good, the better, and the best.

It’s not harsh or heartless to say “no” to things of lower priority even though it may feel that way especially if you’re used to living according to the tyranny of the urgent.  There’s nothing super-spiritual about being available to the entire planet 24/7!  But when there’s a true emergency all the planning, as important as it is, goes out the window.  How long we attend to an emergency and how intensely depends on the relationship.  Our goal is to be wise, to think things through and show good judgment.

As wise women we will think through our choices and the messages they deliver to our husbands, children, neighbors, co-workers, team members, family & friends.  We will think situations through and consider possible consequences, both good and bad.  We will weigh everything and – after spending some time praying, waiting on God, seeking His wisdom, and getting godly counsel – we’ll make good decisions.

Elizabeth George refers to “the golden years,” that period in life “after middle age traditionally characterized by wisdom, contentment, and useful leisure.”  Sometimes our circumstances are such that as we stand looking down the corridor of time, life can appear so hopeless, so pointless, so futile.  But God’s vision is much greater than ours!  His perspective is priceless!  Let’s treat each day as if it and it alone were our “golden day” – then what a beautiful string of golden days becoming golden years we would have to give back again to our Lord!  Imagine being a woman who treats each day as if it and it alone is her golden day!  Now that’s a woman after God’s own heart.  Treating each day as if it and it alone is our golden day is the how of practicing priorities, and it’s also the why – the motivation and the perspective we need – for practicing them.

We can focus on having one good day – today.  After all, as someone has observed, “every day is a little life, and our whole life is but a single day repeated.”  So we can keep our focus on having a good day today and, at the end of the day, we can slip that single pearl onto a strand.  The pearls on our strands will add up to a good life!

But what if today was a string of failures?  A day of merely trying to survive?  A day of taking shortcuts?  A day of neglecting things we wanted to focus on?  We all have those days.  But thanks be to God who enables us to forget the day that is done, to reach forward the next morning, and to press on toward the goal – the pearl – again and again and again!  In His power and by His grace, we keep following after God’s heart – no matter what.

Every morning God gives us a fresh new day, His gift of a fresh, unspoiled opportunity to live according to His priorities.  By exercising the privilege of confession and because of Jesus’ forgiveness, we can have a clean start with the dawn.  God’s mercies are new every morning, and His faithfulness is great (Lamentations 3:22 – 23)!  So every morning we need to remember that our goal is simple – we want to have just one good day of living our priorities.  Then we keep focused on following God’s plan for our lives for just this one day.  Then at the end of the day we’ll be filled with peace, knowing that because we lived out God’s priorities for us, all is well in our homes.  Why this peace?  Because we sought the Lord and followed close after Him the whole day!  The people in our lives were loved; and served out of the overflow of our full hearts.  Our homes were cared for – and God’s beauty and order reigned there in the refuge we created.  We took care of ourselves and grew as God stretched us in preparation for serving Him.  And we did serve – anyone and everyone who crossed our paths.  We reached out, looked out, gave out, and lived out God’s priorities for a woman after His heart.  And then there were the other things – perhaps our dear parents, needy souls at our place of employment, special friends, time with a hurting neighbor, hand-made gifts.  On and on your golden day went as we looked to God for His guidance, wisdom, and strength, as we loved Him by faithfully obeying Him, and as we leaned on Him during the challenges and trials of the day.

It was indeed a full day – but oh, what a rich one.  Our bodies are tired – but what a satisfying tiredness.  It may not look like we’ve done much (there’s no big splash, no headline news, nothing to tell anyone about) – but what depth of fullness we sense in our hearts as God whispers to us, “well done!”

As the day ends, we can know we’ve slipped another pearl onto our strand.  This costly pearl is the most magnificent prize awaiting a woman after God’s own heart.  The reward for living life God’s way is immeasurably, unspeakably, and indescribably wonderful.  Our hearts can be satisfied and content.  We have done the giving, the living, the following, and the loving.  In return, God satisfied our longing hearts and filled our hungry souls with His goodness (Psalm 107:9).  The peace we sense is the satisfaction that comes from gladly being spent in doing God’s will, from being a woman after God’s own heart – for just one day.

Now, let that one day – that one step – encourage us to string our daily pearls into a lifetime of living as a woman after God’s own heart!