Daily Devotions
Priorities
Title: Priorities
Reading for May 15: 2 Chronicles 29-31
And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had prepared the people, for the thing came about suddenly.
2 Chronicles 29:36
The first hundred days of a President's tenure in many ways are considered the most important. The rhetoric from the campaign trail is over. The newly elected president sets the tone for the administration and shows with action what the top priorities are.
Hezekiah showed what was most important to him. It wasn't fixing the economy, expanding the military, or improving foreign policy. It was restoring the house of God!
"In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of God and repaired them. He brought in the priests... and said to them, 'Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God." 2 Chronicles 29:3-6
Unfortunately, few of us make spiritual problems our top priority. When we're faced with various problems in life (finances, relationships, education, career, etc.), we try to fix them without God. It's not that we don't recognize spiritual deficiencies in our life. We just think that after we get all our problems solved, then we'll get around to repairing our relationship with God.
Hezekiah would tell us to take care of the temple of God first, and then everything else will take care of itself.
Father, inspire us with the same sense of urgency Hezekiah had in working on our spiritual lives!
