Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled First on the List was written by Adam R. Holes.

The morning commenced like a track meet.

I practically jumped out of bed launching into the teeth of the day's deadlines.

Get the kids to school.

Check.

Get to work.

Check.

I blasted full throttle into my writing to-do list, in which personal and professional

tasks tumbled together in an avalanche-like litany.

Number 13.

Edit article.

14. Clean office. 15, strategic team planning.

16, write tech blog. 17, clean basement. 18. Pray.

By the time I got to number 18, I'd remember that I needed God's help, but I'd gotten that far before it even occurred to me

that I was going at it alone, trying to manufacture my own momentum.

Jesus knew. He knew our days would crash one into another, a sea of ceaseless urgency.

So he instructs in Matthew 6, seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given to you as well. It's natural to hear Jesus's words as a command,

and they are. But there's more here, an invitation. Jesus invites us to exchange the world's frantic anxiety

for a life of trust day by day. God, by his grace, helps us all of our days, even when we get

to number 18 on our list before we remember to see life from his perspective.

...