August 4
People of priority
And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. Luke 2:42 (NKJV)
Hardly any details have been preserved for us regarding the first three decades of Jesus' life. There's an information gap between His birth and infancy until His emergence on the scene as a thirty-year-old man…with one exception.
In Luke's gospel, we're given an account of something that took place when Jesus was twelve years old. With Jesus in tow, Joseph and Mary made the annual Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the purpose of celebrating Passover. After the festivities ended, they trekked back to their hometown of Nazareth. Such journeys were made among large groups of friends and relatives for safety reasons. And as they got underway for the return trip, Joseph and Mary assumed their twelve-year-old son was with some of their traveling companions.
But He wasn't. Jesus had stayed behind in Jerusalem. When Joseph and Mary realized their son wasn't among the throng of travelers, they retraced their way back to Jerusalem, where they found Him dialoging with the religious leaders in the Temple. As they began to reprimand Him for causing such a panic, He gave a curious response:
And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" Luke 2:49 (NKJV)
Jesus was declaring that His priority in life was to be engaged in His Heavenly Father's business, because it mattered more than anything else on earth. Even as a twelve-year-old boy, we see that Jesus was a person with a sense of priority. Some things, or rather something, was more important than everything else. And that's what He was going to devote Himself to.
In a similar sense, we need to be people of priority. We shouldn't view everything in life on an equal footing but should identify the thing that matters most, and then devote ourselves to it.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
Think About It…
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
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