Luke 13:31-33

Nothing could deter our Lord from His mission. I am reminded of the Scripture again found in Luke:

51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Luke 9:51 (NIV)

Jesus was all about His Father’s business. This was His focus. He was fixed, firm and steadfast in this pursuit. Scripture tells us:

34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." John 4:34-38 (NIV)

Jesus’ greatest passion and desire was to do the will of His Father. We find this true in two other passages in John:

30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. John 5:30 (NIV)

29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." John 8:29 (NIV)

Everything Jesus did was the perfect will of His Father making Him God’s perfect Spokesman and effective Executive. As believers we also are to be about our Father’s business much like Paul writes that Epaphras prays for the church at Colosse:

12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. Col 4:12 (NIV)

Believers are to be mature and perfected in Christ. We are to grow up in Him keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus – “the Author and Perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul also writes in Philippians regarding his own personal persistent pressing toward the goal of Christlikeness:

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 6 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Phil 3:12-16 (NIV)

None of us have reached our final stage of sanctification or we would be home with the Lord. One mark of spiritual maturity is a desire to go on with Christ – there will always be more spiritual heights to climb. This serves as a good reminder to us that there must never be a stalemate in our spiritual growth or a plateau beyond which we cannot climb. We should, like Paul, keep pressing on with enthusiasm and persistence forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. Rick Warren

According to A Minute of Margin by Richard A. Swenson M.D., the following principles are suggested in establishing and guarding priorities:

– Obtain priorities from the Scriptures

– Look through God's eyes, and then act on what is seen

– See FIRST the Kingdom of God, and everything else later

– People are more important than things