Some days it seems impossible to schedule another single event to our already overbooked appointment calendar, but it’s necessary if we are to be about our Father’s business. At a leadership meeting a couple of years back, we discussed “Priorities: the pathway to success.”

Setting priorities becomes a challenge when we try to balance ministry, family time, work, and personal time. It never fails that personal time often gets sacrificed. Unless we are getting our strength by reading God’s Word and prayer we’ll spend part of the precious time that we do find, being resentful because we don’t have enough time.

If you have ever felt discouraged and are weary in your struggle to live for God, listen to what the Lord shared with me from Psalm 27. He reminded me that he is my light and my salvation, so I don’t have to fear anything. He is also the strength that I have in my life, and the greatest source of protection that I can have, so I don’t have to be afraid.

When my enemies came against me to destroy me, they had to walk over the blood line because Jesus has built a wall of protection all around me. Instead of my enemies getting the best of me, the Lord caused them to stumble and fall.

If I still don’t feel confident enough to navigate the trials of life, and I lose my footing, time and again, the Lord assures me that even if a “host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear” (Psalm 27:3). We are in a war, but even if the war comes against me, I can still be confident. Why? Because I know that the Lord will give me the desires of my heart, and I desire to seek after Him so that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

He promised in His Word that he would hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle; and then upon a rock. Each of these places offers safety and refuge. We spend a great deal of our time trying to do the right thing, and simultaneously the enemy of our soul seeks to steal our joy and our victory.

If he succeeds in taking my mind off of God’s perfect will for my life, I will not have the confidence to set priorities; but, if I’ll do what the scriptures has said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:33-34); then, I’ll be able to set priorities, for they’ll be in line with God’s will and purpose for my life.

One day there will be no more time, but until that day, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5). That light can shine in the workplace where everyone seems to be in despair; it can shine in the mall when people look so lost from the onslaught of trouble in the world. It can shine into the abyss of the darkest circumstances and lead me out of the pit of defeat. The light of God’s love can lead us home where we’ll find joy and salvation in his presence. May the Lord richly bless you as you find your way back into his presence.

This week’s Lattereign reminds us that we are not alone. if-we-could-open-our-eyes