Big Rocks First
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33
One day a teacher stood in front of his students and pulled out a large glass jar and placed as many baseball size stones as he could into the jar. He then asked the students if the jar was full. Most said “yes,” and the teacher pulled out a bag of pebbles and poured some of them into the jar. Shaking the jar, the pebbles filled the space around the rocks.
The teacher again asked if the jar was full and now most of the students weren’t sure. The teacher pulled out a bag of sand and poured some into the jar, and it filled in the space around the pebbles and rocks. Finally, the teacher poured water into the jar until it was full and asked the students what the point of the illustration was.
One student said the point was that no matter how busy you are if you manage your time wisely you can always fit more in. “No,” the teacher replied, the point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never fit them in. The big rocks are the priorities of your life.
Three “big rock” priorities that every Christian should make sure are in his life are: daily time with God in his word(Psalm 119:16); daily time with God in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17); and regular time with God in church or or other gatherings as we fellowship with other believers (Hebrews 10:25). If you make these three things priorities in your life, everything else will fit into its proper place.
“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
Is spending time with God a priority in your life?
Having begun as a guest speaker in 2005, Dan was appointed Interim Pastor in 2008 and has been serving Maple Root Baptist ever since. As a small group leader and Chaplin for the Connecticut Tigers, Dan has a heart for the lost and the God that saves them.