We have spent the month of July thinking about God’s priorities and the wisdom and guidance those thoughts provide. We know that if something is important to God, it needs to be important to his children as well. Why then do we so often allow the world to dictate our values?

Priorities are spiritual motivators. There are so many things in our lives that require our attention. Very few people are able to live a monastic lifestyle fully focused on the Lord. 

The pace of life in Ephesus would rival the pace of any major city today. Paul told the Ephesians to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of time, because the days are evil.” Each day is to be lived carefully aware that the world moves at a pace that doesn’t leave time for God or for his best use of our time. The days that are “evil” are the days we spend walking the world’s agenda rather than God’s.

Paul then gave the Ephesians, and us, some great advice. He warned the early believers not to be foolish and then advised them how to stay close to God. He said, “Understand what the will of the Lord is.” The key to not living a foolish life driven by the world’s priorities is to know God and understand what he most wants for our lives.

When we made God our King, we gave him the right to govern our choices. When we asked Jesus to be our Savior, we also invited him to be Lord of our lives. God is all powerful, all knowing, and ever present in our lives. His authority is unique because it is always motivated by his perfect love. Submitting to God’s will is easy when we realize his priorities are a product of his perfect knowledge and his character of love. That’s why it is foolish to live with the world’s priorities rather than God’s.

God has a schedule for each day. We know that God’s priorities are wisdom. May our goal be to walk every day led by the perfection of God’s wise plans and praying as Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).