A man asked a pastor, “I’m very busy and very successful and don’t really have time for this, but I wonder if we could talk for five minutes? Since my wife has been attending your church she has been talking about Jesus and I don’t know anything about Jesus, so I thought I’d come by for a few bullet points about Jesus.”
The pastor replied, “I’m not good with bullet points and if I could give you some good bullet points about Jesus, I’m afraid it could have a way of getting into your life that would cause you rethink your power, your success and your money, your marriage and your family—everything.”
The man responded with, “Oh I don’t want to do that, I just want some bullet points about Jesus.” How many are like this man, just give me some data that I can use for…? If love is a switch we turn on when it’s convenient and off when it becomes costly, our faith and passion for the things that really matter diminishes.
“We have been made to love God first, but then we try to satisfy that love by loving ourselves first instead. Satisfaction eludes us, and the downward spiral of self-absorption undermines our lives.”
– Mark Labberton
Following Jesus changes everything
In a previous blog we discovered how to ‘keep the main thing the main thing’ (loving God first and then our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-39; Galatians 5:22-23) and how our specific callings play out at work and in our relationships. While our gifts, learned skills, education and experience are part of our callings, if were not careful we can allow our own preferences, successes and desires be the ultimate measure of what is the main thing is.
After God created humankind He said that, “it was good, very good in His sight.” They were ‘good’ not because they would ‘be fruitful and multiply’ but because they were created in God’s image. They were ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ to be loved by God!
We exist for the joy and satisfaction of our maker and it’s His love alone that enables us to love and enjoy Him forever.
Knowing that we are loved by God changes everything. Yet, sadly we are so easily prone to forget that the main thing, the first thing, is that we are His! God’s word to Israel applies to you and me.
This is what the Lord says, He who created you, Jacob, He who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. John 15:9
You are His. He is fond of you
God’s love ascribes value to you beyond reason. He loves you not because you’re flawless, but just because you are. He is head over heels in love with you and is intensely committed to your highest joy and good.
God has a passionate love for you that gives and gives. His love will never be exhausted. It has no end. It is His love that frees and empowers you to love others around you with the same kind of love.
May His love always be the main thing that you live for so that others will know it too!
