After having seen that we need to change in our thinking, in the last couple of days we’ve looked at another area in which we need to change - God's objectives. We saw that the two primary objectives of God, in all His dealings in the universe are, first of all, His own glory and satisfaction and, secondly, excellence. As an example of God's priority on excellence, we’ve looked briefly at the record of creation - that God checked every stage in creation to see that it came up to His standard. When He saw that it was good, then He continued. And, at the end, when He saw the whole of creation, He saw that it was very good. So, those are, I believe, God's two primary objectives that we need to understand, we need to embrace, we need to enter into - His own glory and satisfaction and excellence.
Now we are going to deal with the second main area: God's priorities, which also, of course, are of tremendous importance, because unless our priorities are in line with God's, we cannot really agree with God; we cannot walk with God.
I want to suggest to you that God's first priority centers in His Kingdom. The first priority of God, in all His dealings with the human race and with this world of ours, is to bring God's Kingdom into being on earth. And I want to emphasize "on earth," because I think many Christians have got a wrong priority. Their priority is to get to heaven. Well that's important but I don't believe that's really God's priority. It may be a stage in the process but God's real priority is to get heaven to earth. That's where the Bible is so different from the thinking of religious people. Most religious people, in one way or another, think in terms of escaping from the world situation. God thinks in terms of establishing His Kingdom in the world situation.
We’ll see in the next couple of days what this really means.
Lord, what a great power faith is in my life; a power that safeguards against the corruption of sin and helps me to excel in goodness. In Jesus' power, I can pursue God's measure of excellence - in my ethical choices, in my family and in relationships, in my work, and in all other areas. Amen.
