Prioritizing After Prayer
It seems there are an abundance of leaders and teachers emphasizing vision and goal setting for the New Year. We praise God
for them, as they equip Christians to establish plans and motivate us to have direction. Now that you have motivation to set your
goals, how do you decide which are the most effective actions to take in order to achieve your goals?
Prioritizing is crucial to effective completion of our goals. We can naturally respond to the urgent tasks that scream, “do me first!”
This causes many of us to be led by situations, and not what is vital for us to achieve our God given vision. By prioritizing, we
determine what action[s] are best to fulfill His plan for us. We must define tasks as important or unimportant, as well as rate
each task as vital and/or urgent. We have included a visual aid that may help.
Every task we plan to do will first be either a column [A] task or [B] task. Once that is determined, we can rate which tasks are
more important and need more immediate attention than others. A column [A] task that is vital as well as urgent is a #1 priority. A
task that is vital to our goals, but is not immediately necessary is a #2 priority. The single biggest error in prioritizing is making a
non-vital but “seemingly urgent” task a #1 instead of a #3 priority. Many times asks that other people bring to us are neither vital
nor urgent to our vision, and are a #4 priority . Some people make these tasks seem so urgent! Remember your vision and your
goals; then determine if their requests are really vital to your vision. Prioritizing tasks that are unimportant to the vision are helpful
too. Recreational “tasks” provide stress relief and are fun [Make some time for them as well]. Keeping a list of useless and
harmful habits or tasks will help us to avoid repeating them.
Okay, so you now know a “F500” planning strategy, but now what?
• Statistically, only 2 out of 10 people will ever strategize the actions that lead to the fulfillment of their goals. The temptation is
to do . . . nothing.
• Even the most “clever” strategy is flawed if it is not based on the infallible Word of God. His wisdom never fails.
“And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.” (Habakkuk
2:2) Notice that it is a 2 step process of writing the vision AND making it plain so that it can become reality. Prioritizing is the
process of defining goals by the actions we take. This may not seem very spiritual but let us look at an example: “but the just
shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4b) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” ( Romans 10:17)
Reading the Word and hearing the Word preached will build life-giving faith. Hearing the Word with understanding is a vital and
urgent task - an [A] #1 priority.
Making to-do lists and rating the importance of tasks in relation to our God given goals is very spiritual. “For which of you,
intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— (Luke 14:28) It is
especially eye-opening, after prayer, to list all of our daily, weekly and monthly activities and count their cost. Of special note are
the tasks that are rated in column [B] and prioritized. To have a list of recreational [fun] tasks that are separated from the useless
and harmful tasks is very important. Prioritizing after prayer, once a week for just 10-15 minutes, will make a profound difference
in achieving the goals and visions God has given you.
Love In Christ,
Gregory & Linda Emler
It seems there are an abundance of leaders and teachers emphasizing vision and goal setting for the New Year. We praise God
for them, as they equip Christians to establish plans and motivate us to have direction. Now that you have motivation to set your
goals, how do you decide which are the most effective actions to take in order to achieve your goals?
Prioritizing is crucial to effective completion of our goals. We can naturally respond to the urgent tasks that scream, “do me first!”
This causes many of us to be led by situations, and not what is vital for us to achieve our God given vision. By prioritizing, we
determine what action[s] are best to fulfill His plan for us. We must define tasks as important or unimportant, as well as rate
each task as vital and/or urgent. We have included a visual aid that may help.
Every task we plan to do will first be either a column [A] task or [B] task. Once that is determined, we can rate which tasks are
more important and need more immediate attention than others. A column [A] task that is vital as well as urgent is a #1 priority. A
task that is vital to our goals, but is not immediately necessary is a #2 priority. The single biggest error in prioritizing is making a
non-vital but “seemingly urgent” task a #1 instead of a #3 priority. Many times asks that other people bring to us are neither vital
nor urgent to our vision, and are a #4 priority . Some people make these tasks seem so urgent! Remember your vision and your
goals; then determine if their requests are really vital to your vision. Prioritizing tasks that are unimportant to the vision are helpful
too. Recreational “tasks” provide stress relief and are fun [Make some time for them as well]. Keeping a list of useless and
harmful habits or tasks will help us to avoid repeating them.
Okay, so you now know a “F500” planning strategy, but now what?
• Statistically, only 2 out of 10 people will ever strategize the actions that lead to the fulfillment of their goals. The temptation is
to do . . . nothing.
• Even the most “clever” strategy is flawed if it is not based on the infallible Word of God. His wisdom never fails.
“And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.” (Habakkuk
2:2) Notice that it is a 2 step process of writing the vision AND making it plain so that it can become reality. Prioritizing is the
process of defining goals by the actions we take. This may not seem very spiritual but let us look at an example: “but the just
shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4b) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” ( Romans 10:17)
Reading the Word and hearing the Word preached will build life-giving faith. Hearing the Word with understanding is a vital and
urgent task - an [A] #1 priority.
Making to-do lists and rating the importance of tasks in relation to our God given goals is very spiritual. “For which of you,
intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— (Luke 14:28) It is
especially eye-opening, after prayer, to list all of our daily, weekly and monthly activities and count their cost. Of special note are
the tasks that are rated in column [B] and prioritized. To have a list of recreational [fun] tasks that are separated from the useless
and harmful tasks is very important. Prioritizing after prayer, once a week for just 10-15 minutes, will make a profound difference
in achieving the goals and visions God has given you.
Love In Christ,
Gregory & Linda Emler
