Poor Prioritisation
30TH NOVEMBER 2024
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.” [Luke 14:28–30 NIV]
To prioritise means to arrange or deal with responsibilities in order of importance. It involves making decisions about what matters most and focusing attention, time, and resources on those priorities. You need to make the right choices, deciding what to focus on and what to set aside based on the level of importance or time sensitivity.
Faithfulness is hard enough as it is to share it among everything you ought to do at once. Learn to plan and prioritise. Remember the famous saying by Benjamin Franklin, that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. Let us add this up today, when you fail to prioritise, you prioritise failure. Failure now becomes the only option.
It is no different in the act of being a faithful steward in the Kingdom of God. Being faithful in itself is a tedious task and an almost impossible task to do as an individual because our flesh is at constant war with our Spirit. We are only able to remain faithful by allowing God to cause in us both to will and to do. Paul said “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). And the one major thing that helps is prioritising the work of God and planning to complete the work He has asked us to do.
Challenges will come but planning helps you to focus. It is in the face of challenges that our faithfulness is seen.
As faithfulness is judged until the end, we cannot start the work, leave it ajar and pick up the next one that comes our way. Remember what Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearance” (2 Timothy 4:7–8).
Ever wondered why God created the universe the way He did? Imagine if He created men before He said let there be light. Then where would have men stayed if He did not first separate the earth from the water? Swimming with the sharks?
This is only possible when you set your priorities right, estimate the cost of the building to know if you have enough to complete it and if not, go back to the one who sent you to build it in the first place. Do not lay the foundation and fail to finish it, it comes with your ridicule.
Prayer: Father, help me that I may seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Help me to set my mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth and help me to diligently plan and prioritise your work above all else teaching me to be faithful towards you and my purpose.
Further Reading: Colossians 3:2, Proverbs 16:1–3 and James 4:13–15
