‘The most important thing in analyzing how we should live as believers is that the most important thing remains the most important thing. Failure in the Christian life may often be traced to a believer allowing the urgent or the pressing to usurp the position of the essential. The most important things may be buried in the dust of good, or often in useless activity. Important things compete for our attention and commitment, and we must prioritize our Christian focus. In making decisions, the most important thing must first be identified then kept as the priority.
As Christians, we live from the inside out. The meditations of our hearts compel our being. Solomon wrote: “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it spring the issues of life” (Prov 4:23 NKJV). External disciplines can never reform an evil heart. Bathing a pig will not make it a sheep. Teaching a criminal will only make him a smarter criminal–if his heart is not changed. By a miraculous act of creation God brings forth physical life, and through regeneration He brings forth spiritual life. But Christians are commanded to work out their salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is at work within them, “both to will and do of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13 KJV).