Isaiah 17:7-8 -- On Respect and Priority

"At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images."
Isaiah 17:7-8


I like the idea of a time when we will all respect the Lord and not look to anything else before him. As to the works of our own hands... I don't think that God hates what we do at all. He wants us to excel, to succeed, and to enjoy our hobbies and our work, and to do a good job. I think the idea here is to make sure we aren't living for those things exclusively, or even mainly, but that we remember that there is a larger purpose and that God needs to come first.

It's the same with people, really. God wants us to love other people and to lift them up and value them, but if we start putting a person or any number of people before God, then we're going to go astray. In the April 1988 conference, President Ezra Taft Benson said "When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives." Often it isn't about choosing between, but rather just correcting our priorities. Sometimes it *is* about choosing between, of course, but with most good things, adding God into the mix and putting him first actually just makes everything better, including relationships, work, school, hobbies, etc.

Today, let's find ways to pursue our interests and satisfy our desires in a healthy way, by putting God first and letting him help us figure out what needs to drop out of our lives and what can stay.