Making the Important Urgent – Part 1 Be Biblical

How many of you have been so busy working on things that are “urgent” that you never get time to focus on the “important?”  I must admit, that pretty much describes my days.

The late President Eisenhower created what is known as the Eisenhower Urgent/Important Principle. It states is that there are two types of activities: 1) Important, which have outcomes that lead one to achieving his or her own goals whether personal or professional, and 2) Urgent, which are activities that demand your immediate attention and in most cases are associated with achieving someone else’s goals. The urgent activities are the ones we most often focus on because these have a more immediate result positive or negative.

Eisenhower believed that by knowing which activities are important and which are urgent, we can focus our attention on the important and put a lower priority on the the urgent non-important issues.

What does that have to do with the battle within us as Christians? Over the next few weeks our blog will explore how Paul set out four priorities for living he used to focus the church and the individuals to the Important and not focused on just the Urgent! The passages will come from 1 Thessalonians Chapter 2.

Paul’s first priority was to be biblical and comes from verses 2 through 14

2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:

4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

Paul and his team had just gotten back from a very bad experience in Phillipi. They were humiliated by the crowd. Paul could have spent his time focusing on the urgent situation that just took place in Phillipi so as not to repeat it here, but he made sure his life and ministry were firmly fixed on the important, the Scriptures.

Look at Vs. 2 – Instead of focusing on the Urgent – how to deal with the crowd and the opposition; he chose to focus on the important, and that was preaching the Gospel.

Look at Vs. 3 and 4 – Paul chose not to spend his time defending himself and his actions against those that would attack him – the Urgent, but to recognize the highest honor God could bestow on an individual, and that is to share the gospel with others.

Sharing the Gospel is a special privilege given to Christians.

God tests us to see how trustworthy we are and then gives the opportunities to share it with others. This is important!

It must become part of our lives

Charles Spurgeon said, “It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord so that your blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.”

Note: the word Bibline is no longer in the dictionary but means “To be a people that love, treasure, read, and live by the Holy Scriptures.” It means to be Bible-saturated.

 At the end of vs. 4, note the scripture changes you as you proclaim its truth, “but God, which trieth our hearts. As we begin to soak up the truth of God’s book, He does a work in us.”

Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” The Word of God touches the soul, the spirit, the thoughts, the attitudes, the very essence of our being. It is through scripture that God changes us.

Being Biblical is the most important thing a Child of God Can and should be.

Don’t let the Urgent steal the Important of scripture from us!

Take time daily to spend in Bible study! It is important!

Next week we will look at priory 2: Being Authentic.