21-Day Fast, Day 21

Taken from the “Imitation of Christ-Devotional”

Do not purse your lust, but turn away from your own will, “Seek thy pleasure in the LORD and HE will give you the heart’s desires.” If you wish to be truly delighted and more abundantly comforted by ME, hold, in contempt all the worldly things and in the cutting off all base pleasures shall your blessings be, and great consolation shall be given to you. Further, the more you withdraw yourself from any solace of creatures, the sweeter and stronger comfort you will find in ME.

At first you will not gain these blessings without sadness, toil, and conflict. Habit already formed will resist you, but it will be overcome by a better habit. The flesh will murmur against you, but it will be bridled by fervor of spirit. The old serpent will sting and trouble you, but prayer will put him to flight and by steadfast, useful toil the path will be closed to him.

Pray:

Direct all my desires to heavenly things, that having tasted the sweetness of supernal happiness, I may find no pleasure in thinking of earthly things. Snatch me up and deliver me from all the passing comfort of creatures, for no created thing can fully quiet and satisfy my desires. Join me to Yourself in an inseparable bond of love; because You alone can satisfy him who loves You, and without You all things are worthless.

How to Set Right Priorities

What actions are you taking to live out what you believe?

The Scriptures contain many cautionary examples of people who had misplaced priorities.

This should give every believer pause:

Take a moment to consider the importance of taking captive wrong thoughts and desires that could lead away from “sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).

For good purposes or bad, we usually set priorities in one of three ways: by evaluating which things are most important to us; by letting people or circumstances influence what we value; or by drifting into habits and thought patterns that become a way of life.

But no matter how we determine priorities, they’ll be misplaced unless we take into account how God wants us to live and what’s most important to Him.

In order to remain steadfast for Christ we must prioritize deliberately, or we will miss the mark.

Those things of greatest importance to the Lord should be in place before circumstances, our own desires, or other people tempt us to waver.

Since devotion to Christ is of utmost importance, we must set goals in accordance with God’s Word.

Self-discipline is also needed because living purposefully is rarely easy.

Keeping Christ first makes it harder for other pursuits and pleasures to distract us.