There is a song by Sara Groves that I have been listening to a lot lately. As you can probably guess it’s called “Stir My Heart.” With a new year in mind and thinking of my goals/resolutions, this song helped me to prioritize what is most important.
If time were ever to wear You away
And circumstance should bind me
If age should bring a dark night on my soul
If fear and doubt should blind mePlease stir my heart
Take me back to the fire
And bring to me recollections of joy
And renew my first desireIf pains and trials come to me
And I cannot stand strong
If fools adjust my theories
To believe Your truth is wrongPlease stir my heart
Take me back to the fire
And bring to me recollections of joy
And renew my first desireI swear it will never happen to me
But how I can I know
For Peter swore the same to Thee
Oh, hear the cock crowPlease stir my heart
Take me back to the fire
And bring to me recollections of joy
And renew my first desire
It is easy to lose focus and not have our “first thing” be our “first thing” anymore. What takes first place in your life—family, money, possessions, work, sports, technology? All of these are great things in their proper place.
So at this point you may be asking what should be first. I will let Jesus tell you from the Gospel of Mark:
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’”
Mark 12:28-31 NIV
This should not have been new news to the teachers of the law. Jesus is actually quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 here that they should have memorized since they were responsible for passing this down to the people. This is part of the Shema (Hebrew for “hear”) and has become a Jewish confession recited twice daily by the devout. The passage in Deuteronomy does not include “with all your mind” but Jesus added it to show how complete our devotion to God should be. By the way, Jesus is the only one that can add to Scripture and get away with it!
Jesus again emphasized what is most important in one of my favorite passages of Scripture that He teaches in His Sermon on the Mount:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:28-34 NIV (emphasis mine)
When we genuinely seek God first all the other “stuff” will fall into place.
As you contemplate the goals and resolutions that you’ve made (and maybe broken already) consider what is most important. No matter how far we stray God will always welcome us back with open arms. My prayer is that he will “stir your heart and take you back to the fire” in 2011.
Have a great day and a great year!