PRIORITIES

Dearly Beloved, I am excited to come your way once again, to start off a brand new week. We thank God for His goodness, mercies and kindness towards us, indeed it is of His mercies that we are not consumed. Our God is a faithful God, and I’m glad that His faithfulness is not predicated on my actions, but on who He is, hallelujah. With today being the second Sunday in the month of February, and as we go deeper into the first quarter of the year, I would like to share with us on the importance of setting our priorities straight. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 lets us know that there is time for everything under the sun. In an agricultural context for instance, there is a time to cultivate the land, a time to plant, a time to nurture the plant and a time for harvest. If a farmer fails to do what he is supposed to do at the right time, and in the right order, more especially for agriculture products, it cascades down and affects everything else. Therefore, the importance of setting our priorities right in order to remain Above Only cannot be overemphasized.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

In our very familiar text above, Jesus says something very instructive “seek first”, which shows that God recognizes the importance of having our priorities straight. Jesus admonishes us to seek first, not seek second or third, but first His kingdom, because everything else that we desire stems of doing first things first. This gives us a template for the rest of our lives, which is, you must put first things first. Learn to organize your life in order of priority. If you must be Above Only in 2019 and beyond, then you must be an individual that prioritizes. And of course from our text we know that our relationship with God is number one, because everything else flows out from our relationship with Him. In our world today, we see a lot of misplaced priorities, people chase things, the additions, rather than chasing after God’s Kingdom. It’s just like a farmer chasing the nurturing stage, or the harvest stage, without planting, it simply cannot work, because there’d be nothing to harvest.

Setting your priorities in order will help you be successful in your family, business, career, ministry, in all areas of your life because you would put things in the right order, enabling you to achieve your desired results. Remember, there is a time to pray, read your bible, there is also a time to work, a time to go to school, don’t do one and leave out the other. The thing with these things is that one cannot replace the other, and then doing them backwards will not help either, because you won’t achieve anything. Always think of the farmer when setting your priorities, it will help you.

I pray for you that this week, you will achieve results. The Holy Spirit will help you set your priorities straight, so that you can remain Above Only. The favour of God shall attend all of your ways and your lips shall be filled with testimonies. I bless you in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Maranatha!

In His Royal Service

Dr. Mike Okonkwo

The Presiding Bishop