A religious leader once asked Jesus what was the most important commandment of all (Matthew 22:34-40). His reply was to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind.” He went on to say that the second greatest commandment was to love everyone else as much as we love ourselves. This is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Our lives are to be consumed with Him, and the way we express that is by giving the same love He has given us to everyone we meet. These are really the only “rules” required to be a disciple of Jesus. If we live in this way, we can be assured that we are living in the will of God.
Matthew
Focus on God
We are so easily distracted by the cares and pleasures of this world. Knowing he is defeated, Satan has brilliantly crafted a strategy that is making certain that he doesn’t go down alone. His entire purpose is to thwart the plans of God, delay his own inevitable demise, and keep you and me as far away from God as possible. He accomplishes this through altering our focus. As followers of Jesus, our focus should always be on two things: God Himself and serving others in His name. Everything else in life will make sense if we are keeping our focus solely on these two areas.
Expanding God’s Presence in your Life
Jesus made it clear that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). The Bible also states that darkness cannot coincide with light (I John 1:5; John 8:12; John 12:46; 1 Thessalonians 5:5). We can’t fill our lives with darkness and expect the presence of God to be evident within us. We spend too much time pursuing our desires and counting on God to bail us out when things don’t go our way. If you’ve been following Jesus for any amount of time, you realize it doesn’t work that way. As creatures of freewill, we have the ability to limit the power and presence of God in our lives. The more we fill our lives with sin and things not of God, the less room we have for Him.
Avoiding Pain
We all avoid pain whenever possible. If there’s a way out, or a path around, we certainly choose it. We don’t like to be uncomfortable and so we keep to our usual patterns and habits. If we’re honest, we all have at least one area of our life that we know needs to be changed. But change is hard. Change can be painful. So we avoid what we know needs to be done, and push it to the back of our mind. Meanwhile God continues to convict us about the issue and the conflict grows worse by the day. It’s been well documented that few will change until staying where they are becomes more uncomfortable than the change itself. This should not be the way for followers of Jesus.
Seeking God
When I can, I like to take a long quiet walk in the early morning. The newness of the day reminds me how majestic the whole of God’s creation truly is. In the peacefulness, my goal is to spend little time talking to God, and most of it simply taking in the breathtaking beauty of nature and listening to His voice. I generally start with a quick prayer of gratitude and then lay out what is on my mind. Then I simply walk and listen. Today I learned a lot about seeking God. It’s ironic that I learned more about seeking in just a few minutes of listening than I have in the hours I have spent busying myself attempting to seek Him.