Is it obedience? Being a good person? Happiness? Or does He care at all?
Have you ever asked yourself just what it is that God wants from you above all else? What the real purpose of life is? Most of us, at one time or another, have at least considered questions such as these. I know I have.
Growing up, I attended church regularly but never really knew God in a personal way. If you had asked me if I believed in Him, I would have said yes, although my belief was little more than mere head knowledge about a very impersonal, demanding God who was always ready to punish. Not surprisingly, my "faith" was weak and superficial. If you had asked me then what God wanted from me above all else, or what the purpose of life was, I probably would have said something like, "to be a good person, to behave, or to simply obey the rules...that the point of our existence was to just not do bad things or make God mad."
Likewise, there are various other perspectives on this issue. Popular Christian author, John Eldredge, says that within Christian circles "from some denominations we're told that what God wants is obedience, or sacrifice, or adherence to the right doctrines, or morality. The more therapeutic churches suggest that no, God is after our contentment, or happiness, or self-actualization, or something else along those lines. God is concerned about all these things, of course, but they are not His primary concern."
So, what actually is God's primary concern? Fortunately, we can go straight to the source to find out. Looking at Scripture, we find that Jesus was actually confronted with this very question by the Pharisees and experts in the law as they asked, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment" (Matt. 22:37-38). Jesus went straight to the point.
Above all else, God is concerned that we love Him. Nothing is more important to Him than that. He is more concerned that you love Him than even your service, good deeds, sacrifice or giving.
Yes, loving Him is the primary purpose of life, what He wants most from us. You see, God knows that when we love Him first, the other things He desires for us will follow. Out of our love for Him we will naturally serve, give, obey and love others sacrificially. And when we do, it becomes more of a joy and less of a burden. The more we love Him with our heart, soul and mind, the more His love will simply flow out of us for the world around to experience.
Let's take this a step further. God is not satisfied with our good "Christian duties" if we don't truly love Him. In the book of Isaiah God speaks a powerful message to His half-hearted people saying, "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is made up only of rules made by men" (29:13). Put simply, God is not pleased with people going through the motions of "Christianity," saying all the right things, doing good deeds and services , if their hearts are not really His...if they don't really love Him.
And let's be clear, the point here is not to create fear in you about how perfectly pure your heart is every time you go to serve. No one has a heart that is completely and totally pure in their motives. Welcome to the club. Thank God for His grace. We are covered. However, the point is that God, in His amazing love, cares more about your heart being His (where it is safe, becoming more whole, more healed, more like Him) than He does empty works that are rooted in trying to earn His approval or to validate yourself as a real Christian. He is a good Father. He wants your heart, and that is a good thing...no, a great thing.
A respected pastor once told me, "God is not as concerned with activities as He is with relationships." And the relationship He is most concerned with is the one between you and Him (which also includes His church, which you are a part of as a believer). In reality:
God is more concerned that you love Him than He is that you run around doing a bunch of activities and things for Him.
This is not to diminish the good works God uses us for in this life. When we love Him good works should be a natural result. But they are not the point. Loving Him is the point.
I'm completely convinced that everything in life should flow out of your relationship with God, His love for you and your love for Him. When that is first in your life, your other priorities fall into place. You are able to serve, give, sacrifice, love others and so on, out of your love for Him. You will want to do these things. If you don't really love Him you end up doing them out of a sense of duty and obligation. This becomes grueling and exhausting, leaving you burned out and frustrated.
Later in Scripture Jesus actually goes as far as to say that all of the other commands hinge on this first one to love God (and others). In reality, if we always loved Him first there wouldn't even be a need for any other commands. We wouldn't even need to be told to not steal, not covet, to treat others as we want to be treated...it would happen naturally out of loving Him as our primary focus. And this is why He commands that we love Him first. He knows this must be the foundation, the starting point for all we do.
Let this message not be a burden causing you to try harder to please God. But rather, let a sense of freedom come as you realize that God just wants you. He just wants your love. Certainly the other commands are important and good works are desired, but let those come as a result of your love for God, not to earn it from Him. So today, I encourage you to simply take a break for a moment, even from your good deeds, and simply be with God. Listen. Be still. Let Him love you. And let your heart love Him back. Nothing else you do today will matter more than this. And truly, all else you do hinges on it.
So, can we actually love God with all of our heart, soul and mind if we don't really know Him in a personal way? We will discuss this aspect of loving God in the next post...
By Ryan Walters
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