Jesus Ranked His Priorities. Most of Us Have the List Backwards

I wasn’t looking for this. I was just studying the Lord’s Prayer. But the more I looked at the order, the more I realized: this is the value system of Jesus. And it changed how I see my entire life.

Let me tell you what happened this week, because I am still not over it.

I was studying the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11. I have read it a hundred times. But this time something caught me — and it wasn’t the words. It was the order.

“So He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

— Luke 11:2-4 (NKJV)

Watch what Jesus prays for, and the sequence He puts it in:

1. Relationship with God as Father — first. Before anything.

2. Reverence for His name — that His name be treated as holy.

3. The advancement of His Kingdom — Your Kingdom come.

4. His will being done — on earth as it is in heaven.

5. Our daily needs — give us today our daily bread.

6. His mercy — forgive us, as we forgive others.

7. Deliverance — from temptation, evil, and the devil.

Now here is the thing that stopped me.

The order is not random. Jesus does not do random. What He puts first is what He values most. What comes second, second. What comes third, third. So I started paying attention to the sequence — not as a prayer, but as a revelation.

Because this order? This is the value system of Jesus.

These are the seven things He thought were important enough to pray for. And He ranked them for us. What matters most to Him. What matters next. All the way down. He handed us a window into His own heart, and most of us walked right past it because we were busy reciting.

I sat there and thought, Oh my goodness. This is powerful. #ItWasHidingInPlainSight

This isn’t just for prayer

Here is where it got really good.

I realized this value system does not stay locked inside a prayer. It can be extrapolated to every area of my life. If these are the things Jesus values, in this order, then these are the things that should govern how I live, how I decide, how I spend my time, what I chase.

Think about how companies do this. Every serious organization has core values — a short list of non-negotiables that shape every decision they make. When something doesn’t line up with the values, they don’t do it. The values are the filter. The values are the identity.

And I thought: As a person, shouldn’t I have that too? Not values I picked up by accident from my family, my culture, my circumstances. Values I chose on purpose — and better yet, values I received straight from Jesus.

So I did the work. I took His value system and I wrote my own core value statement out of it. Here it is:

1. My number one priority is my relationship with my Father.

2. I am jealous for the name of my Father and for His glory.

3. I prioritize the advancement of His Kingdom.

4. I seek and enforce His will in the earth.

5. I depend on Him for my daily needs

6. I forgive others and repent quickly.

7. By my Lord, I live above the destructive impact of temptation, evil, and the devil.

Seven values. Same seven Jesus prayed. Same order. That is on purpose. I did not sit down and brainstorm what I wished I valued. I received a value system from the mouth of Jesus and I made it mine.

You never arrive — you just keep coming back

Now let me be honest with you about where I am.

Some of these I have already embodied in one way or another. Others I am nowhere near where I want to be. And that is completely fine — because this is not a box you check.

You never arrive with these things. You do not master them and move on. You just keep getting better. You keep growing into them. And you keep coming back — over and over — to make sure you are still in alignment. This is a lifelong pursuit. My commitment is to keep working on embodying this value system more and more, deeper and deeper, until Jesus comes back.

That is the goal. Not perfection. Alignment, again and again, for the rest of my life.

Here is exactly how I’m going to do it

A revelation with no plan is just a nice feeling. So here is my plan, and I want you to steal it.

1. I’m going to meditate on it. I want this value system top of mind — constantly. Not something I read once and forget. Something I marinate in until it becomes the way I think.

2. I’m going to audit my life regularly. On a schedule. I will hold my actual, lived life up against these seven values and ask: Is there anywhere I am out of alignment? And the moment I find it, I correct it immediately. No drifting.

3. I’m going to deliberately practice functioning this way. On purpose. Putting my relationship with God as number one. Seeking the advancement of His Kingdom. Making His name look good in the earth. Living it out until it stops being effort and starts being who I am.

That’s it. Meditate. Audit. Practice. Repeat — forever.

Come with me

I would love for you to do this with me.

If you are in, here is your first step: write your own version of these core values. Look at the value system of Jesus in Luke 11. Sit with the order. Then write your own core value statement out of it — in your own words, for your own life.

And then let’s go on this journey together — becoming more and more like Christ by adopting His value system more and more, until He returns.

If you are doing this with me, I want to know. Type “all in” in the comments. Let’s do this together.

Rooting for us. We got this. 🤍

— Dr. Una