WISDOM OF PRIORITIZING

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but ONE THING I do…” – Philippians 3:13a

GOD’S WORD through Paul the Apostle, offers great Insight into the WISDOM of PRIORITIZING: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but ONE THING I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ” (Phi.3:13-14). Priorities are options that are considered more important than others at a given time. These may relate to needs, desires, decisions, values, or activities. Prioritizing is the ranking of options in order of importance or significance, which sharpens the Arrow of Achievement. The Wisdom of Prioritizing is the Wisdom of Focus and Concentration.

Prioritizing is imperative for a life of meaningful accomplishments. First, setting priorities prevents purposeless drifting in life. Lack of well-established priorities will lead to drifting from one decision, activity, or programme to another with no sense of enduring progress. Second, prioritizing enhances performance, effectiveness and excellence. Many people try to do far too many things with mediocrity rather than one or few things excellently. Even God had a priority-plan for each day of creation. No wonder His products came out “very good” (Gen.1:31).

Paul’s chief goal was to get to know Christ better, be like Him, and become all Christ had in mind for him. This goal absorbed all of his energy. We also should not let anything take our eyes off the goal of knowing Christ. With the single-mindedness of an athlete in training, we must lay aside every unholy weight and forsake anything that may distract us from being effective Believers in Christ. For this Man of One Thing, prioritizing into the future was more important than complaining about the past. One of the main hindrances that keeps people from becoming what God wants them to become is their past: struggling to overcome past hurts, failures, setbacks, and patterns of behavior.

We must not let our past distract us. The past is past. Today is a brand-new day. We must arise from past falls, and keep going! That's what winners do: they get back up and run for the finish line, no matter how many times they stumble. They're focused. There is always the temptation to try to do everything at once, especially when one is under pressure. Wisdom says: One Thing at a Time! Prioritizing ensures economic and optimal use of resources. For the Believer, the process of choice between alternatives demands total dependence on God, plus good judgement based on the knowledge of His Word and Will, as well as the knowledge, experience or training acquired in life.

In general, we never seem to find the time to do all we would like to do. Our activities, duties, and responsibilities crowd our schedule so that we just can’t seem to do all we want to do or even need to do. We need to find time for necessary activities, but many other things also compete for inclusion in the schedules of many people, such that they feel overwhelmed when they consider all of the time-consumers! The principle of prioritizing categorizes every goal, project or activity into one of three classes: High, maintenance, and low priority goals. The achievement of high priority goals must be committed to and commenced immediately. Maintenance status goals can be allowed to simply coast along. We neither give impetus for them nor try to cancel them. Low priority goals are the ones we should not worry about.

One way of setting priorities is by relating them to purpose. We could ask: “If I have to abandon everything else but ONE, what one thing would remain?” We keep asking that question until all options are ranked in a hierarchy. Above all, let’s set our Priority on the Unlimited God! Looking unto Jesus must be every Believer’s Number One Priority: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our Faith...” (Heb.12:2a).