Jesus as the Center

Before I get into today's topic I will share this weeks memory verse:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

Right now I am reading a book called "A Beautiful Way" by Dan Baumann. I try to read a chapter and then apply what I learn for awhile before I read the next chapter. The last chapter I read was on Intimacy with Jesus. It was a great chapter and gave me a new perspective on Jesus' involvement in my life. I have often heard or been taught that our priorities should be listed as following:

1. God
2. Family
3. Ministry
4. Friends
5. Personal interests

Sounds like a good order to put God first and then family and so on. However, this author gave me a new insight. We should not put our priorities in a list. The problem with that is that we put God first in our day and leave Him there. In the morning we get up and read our Bible and pray and go about our other daily activities. We often leave God in our devotion time then and do not include Him in the rest of our day. I so often am guilty of that. In the morning I may have a great time with God but at the end of the day I realize that I hardly prayed throughout the day and I feel disconnected with God. Instead of a list the author suggests that we think of Jesus as the center of our lives. His word picture is to think of Jesus as the sun with all the planets revolving around it. Jesus needs to be the center with all our activities, thoughts, plans, other priorities, etc revolving around Him. We need to be in tune to doing His plans for our day and not just our own plans. If we feel a peace about going to a movie with a friend great! If He leads us to make a meal for someone who needs it instead of cleaning the house, that is more important. Living with this perspective would take an element of spontaneity. But, since our life is not our own this is a good thing! So, I am guessing that I won't be reading the next chapter for awhile because I think it will take me awhile to learn to really live this way! I make my daily plans and am stubborn to stick to them. I need to let God plan my day now.

On another note, if you want a good read, read Psalm 145. It has been my daily reading this week. A real worship chapter that has helped to renew my joy!