Noticing and shifting priorities that can displace God’s purpose

It is typical to have priorities that compete with following Jesus, even if you don’t realize it. Sometimes, these priorities are things you know are not related to following Jesus but don’t realize you are placing ahead of Jesus. At other times, these competitors are things that you think are the same as following Jesus, such as your sacrifices for family, church, or service to others. It is important to scrutinize your priorities in order to prepare yourself for any adjustments God may ask you to make, particularly if those adjustments infringe upon what you presently believe to be his will.

In order to carry out God’s will in your life, you have to map his transcendent purpose down to your routine tasks. However, the danger in any routine is losing sight of its intended purpose. Even things as valuable as family, church, and service can become idols if they take such an unquestionable priority in your life that you cease consideration of long-term benefit, or would be unwilling to adjust them if God showed you the need to.

At all times, all priorities in the life of a disciple of Christ must remain subordinate to Christ himself. Conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ consists of total abandonment of prior motives and purposes in preference to the motive and purpose of Jesus Christ. You “come into the fold of God” by covenanting to do, think, and feel as you understand he would “at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death....” (Mosiah 18:7, 9)

To promote God to the highest priority requires you to revisit and restructure every other priority in your life. To submit to God requires you to sever your priorities and reattach them only if and when they fit into what Jesus would do in your place. Anything that does not serve as a means to God’s purpose must be removed from your life, and anything that does must be added in order of priority from greatest to least importance, impact and benefit.

There are two ways we can violate God’s prioritization in our lives. First, we can include in our priorities things that do not matter to him. This certainly includes what most regard as sin, but also includes a surprising number of potential activities or desires that few regard as immoral. Too many Christians believe that if they practice what their sect dictates is most important in the relevant areas of their lives, God will bless, approve, or at least allow whatever they choose to do in the rest.⁶ We also violate God’s prioritization in our lives whenever we rank things at a higher or lower priority than he would. Human nature tends to value things more or less than God does, typically to a great degree, and most people do not live a consistent and intentional prioritization in life. The Lord reveals to us more accurate measures of value through his gospel which establishes and modifies the hierarchy of importance in the understanding of those who surrender to him.

While adjusting your priorities to place God above all else may seem like a radical change, most people will find that there is still room for everything good to remain in their lives. Sooner or later, however, God will test your priorities, as he has for every one of his faithful servants. God will test whether he comes first in your life by asking you to sacrifice what is most important to you. God’s tests can be as drastic and obvious as they were with Abraham and Job, or as subtle and subconscious as they were with many others.⁷ The subtle and subconscious tests tend to reveal as much or more about your deepest desires as do the drastic and obvious ones. Always be on the lookout for these tests.⁷¹²

The worth of prioritizing God isn’t about gaining some arbitrary favor with him. The favor of God comes in proportional relationship to those that become like him through adopting his purpose.⁷¹³ The only things that will endure eternally are those which accord with the Lord’s purpose. If you choose in the time of trial to cling to anything that ought to be subordinate to God, you guarantee that you will not have it eternally.

This life is designed as an opportunity to choose to what extent you will submit to God,⁷¹⁴ and it is effective in its aims. All people will be tested to see where their limit lies. Those who serve God above all else will receive greater eternal joy than those who do not.