Three Things God Wants From Us

Have you ever met someone that lives in the past? All they want to talk about is high school or college! It’s usually because they are really proud of how it used to be or really embarrassed of how it used to be. Either way, they aren’t thinking about the present or the future. Instead, God wants us to use our past experience to trust Him for the present and walk boldly into the future.

What can we focus on right now that will impact our future? What does God really want from us? Here’s three big things that will keep us on track:

1. Keep the main thing the main thing

In life, work and the church, it’s easy to get distracted by lesser things. Shiny objects catch our attention and we lose our focus on the main thing. Social justice is importantt-but it’s not the main thing. Building community is important but it’s not the main thing. Family is important but it’s not the main thing. Jesus wasn’t unclear on this topic. He told us that we must “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of our soul and with all of your mind (Matthew 22:37).” The main thing in life is to love God with everything we have and then share that experience with others who are far from God. Paul said he was an “ambassador for Christ, God making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:20).” That means that as soon as we get rescued we’re now on the rescue team -helping others find Jesus and all that he offers them.

2. Faith is personal but not private

Everyone must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We cannot rely on the faith of our parents or our pastor. If you haven’t placed your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and received the Holy Spirit, you should stop reading and do that right now! But once a person comes to Christ it was never meant to be a private thing. Faith in Christ was meant to be lived out in a community of other believers. In fact, the Bible tells us in many places that believers belong to a family. -God is our father and other believers are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul says it this way: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father! (Romans 8:15).” Every family has weird uncles. Every family has baggage. But family, in God’s design, is worth fighting for. Your church family needs you and you need it. Apart from relationships with other believers we have a very clear target on our backs that the enemy will aim for every time.

3. God says go

Staying in day-to-day comforts and routines is easy. We park in the same spots, talk to the same people, and eat at the same place at the dinner table. It's natural that every time God says "go" we would say "no.” We have opportunities every day to live a life of purpose, mission and calling but instead we create a “what if” movie in our mind. What if they don't like me? What if I'm labeled as a weird Christian? What if I fail? These types of questions and comforts stop us when God says clearly in his word to "go!" In Romans 10 Paul tells us that "Anyone who believes in their heart and confesses with their lips that Jesus is Lord will be saved (Romans 10:10).” That's the first step for anyone! He then continues in verse 14 by challenging us with a series of questions for those of us who already know him. These questions, summarized into one question is this: If we don’t go, who will? Will you?