How many times have you thought how nice it would if only God would tell you exactly what He wants of you? Here you go.
Simple. And deep. God requires only that you:
- fear Him
- live in a way that pleases Him
- love Him
- serve Him with all your heart and soul
Well, that’s easy enough. We’re done here, have a great day!
Except………….
what does that look like in everyday life?
We’ve talked about fearing God here before, so I won’t go into it again. Just know, that it’s to be real fear, and it’s to be of God, nothing else.
Next, we’re to live in a way that pleases Him. Well, there we go again, being all ambiguous and stuff. Throughout the Book, God tells us the things that will please Him, and Jesus boils that down to two simple-to-remember things: Love God, love others.
Love Him? Well, that’s simple, but how to I do that in ways that prove it to Him? Jesus was very clear when He said that if we love Him, we’ll obey His commands.
Finally, serve Him with all your heart and soul. Serve God? What’s that look like? I mean, He’s in Heaven and I’m here. How can I serve Him? I wrote about that, too. Check here, here, and here.
All these things are wrapped up in a relationship. When we recognize who God is and all He can do, these things become part of us. We long to please Him, not from obligation, but gratitude and love. We love Him and we want to serve Him.
Where we get mixed around is when we allow our horizontal view to become more important than our vertical one. Jesus addressed this in Luke 14:26 where He declared that in order to really be His follower, one has to, in comparison, hate everyone else. The key words are in comparison. We’re not to hate others, quite the opposite!
We are, however, to love God so deeply, so intrinsically, that our love for others pales in comparison — to the point of looking like indifference or hatred.
Think about that. Consider how much you love your spouse, your parents, your children, your grandchildren, your BFF. How much should you be loving God to make that love appear as hatred?
Are you loving Him that much? Does He take full precedence in your life? Does He hold the throne in your live at all times or only when you feel like you can step off of it?
If you’re like me, you have some work to do. Today’s a fine day to get started on it.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
