Today’s devotion is based on Week 1 of “Tough Love”: Sets boundaries! (WATCH HERE)
Steven Covey is known for his books on productivity and ensuring that a person does things that don’t just keep a person busy, but effective. His book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is one that has been a best seller for years. In this book, he outlines four quadrants of productivity and how to determine what we should be doing, but what often gets a majority of our time. In reverse order…
Quadrant 4: Not Important/Not Urgent
Quadrant 3: Not Important/Urgent
Quadrant 2: Important/Not Urgent
Quadrant 1: Important/Urgent
Covey’s advice for these quadrants is this:
Quadrant 4: “Quadrant of waste; avoid escaping here (spending time here)”
Quadrant 3: “Try to reject or avoid these things. Delegate to someone else.”
Quadrant 2: Plan to get done, allow time for these.
Quadrant 1: Quadrant of necessity…Do first or else!
In order to spend time on Quadrant 1 priorities, one has to say no to activities that fall into the other three quadrants.
How do you determine what is in your Quadrant 1? Quadrant 1 are those things which help to advance your mission, your purpose. Other things, while they might be important or benefit others might have to be let go.
Jesus understood this well. His purpose?
As he said to Zacchaeus, Luke 10:9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus’ mission was to bring the good news to the hearts of people so they would believe he was the Savior and secure their salvation.
So…at times he had to say no to other good things he was able to do.
After the day of teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, healing Simon’s mother-in-law, and healing many more and driving out demons, the next morning he did this:
Luke 4:42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Healing people was important and one might say “urgent.” But it was secondary to proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God to more people.
What if Jesus spent all his time healing people and driving out demons? He could have said, “Healing people and taking care of their physical needs is important. I just didn’t get time to proclaim the good news to others because there were so many sick people that needed my attention.”
He could have. But tough love prioritizes the mission. So Jesus set a boundary to ensure the most important and urgent thing got done: Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
Perhaps there are opportunities for us to do the same.
Apply: Evaluate the things you do in your day/week. Is there opportunity to prioritize the bringing good news to the people around you? Your family? Your friends? Coworkers? Maybe you have to say “No” to something to be part of Jesus’ mission.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank your for doing so many important things, but especially prioritizing the spread of the good news to the hearts of people…including me. AMEN.