What Does God Want From Us?

   When we look around us and begin to narrow things down to their most basic level, what are the things that appear to be most important to us?

   Sure, our priorities can change from time to time due to our circumstances. If we're ill, we might feel as though getting healthy again is our #1 priority. If we're struggling to make ends meet, finding a better job or career might be the first thing that comes to mind. If we're in school, making it through the current semester with a reasonably good GPA might be it.

   But as we look back over the course of our lives, or when we look at what we'd most like to have in the future, what would be the one thing we'd most like see evidence of above anything else?

   Wouldn't it be to know that we are truly and deeply loved by those who are closest to us? I mean, when the chips are down and everything seems to be falling apart, what is the one thing that can carry us through the hard times? Isn't it love?

   Feeling a strong, deep, profound sense of love toward one another - and from one another - is the only thing that will cause us to make multiple and continual choices that can forever change the course of our lives. When we think about everything we'd be willing to endure due to the love we feel for our children, our spouses, or our friends, it's absolutely clear that love is the most driving motivational force we'll ever experience.

   On the flip side, if we're not feeling a true sense of deep, profound, unconditional love from others, the longing we all have to experience it can cause us to make absolutely horrible choices in an effort to obtain it.

   Since I'm fairly convinced that you're all in agreement with the above, I'd like to now point out something that - if we can truly wrap our minds about it - can forever alter the course of our lives.

   Back in Genesis, during the creation story, what was said about the creation of man and woman?

   "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness........" Genesis 1:26

   As we read this, wouldn't it be reasonable to conclude that if we truly were made in the image of God, and in his likeness, then God must also love us very deeply and wants to know that we love him as he loves us? If that seems like a bit of a stretch to you, listen to Jesus' words when he was asked what the most important commandment was.

    ^"One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “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." Matthew 22:35-37

   Here's where most people who want no part of Christianity get completely lost: They tend to believe that God puts this long list of do's and don'ts in front of us, and then tells us that if we don't live up to his standard of living, we can never be worthy of heaven and are therefore condemned.

   But consider this for just a moment: If we first believe that God is real, that he loved us so much that he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins so that we may be forgiven and have our relationship restored with him, and then love him in return because he first loved us more than we could possibly comprehend, that list of do's and don'ts doesn't become some overwhelming standard of living that we could never possibly live up to. In fact, it instead begins to resemble very closely the things we naturally do when we love our children, our spouses, or our friends. The way we begin to think about the decisions we make on a daily basis - in relation to how those decisions might impact the people we love - just naturally changes from one of serving our own self-interests to one of self-sacrifice.

   Think that through for a moment. When you first met the man or woman you fell madly in love with, how many things changed for you in relation to how you wanted to live and act from that point forward? If you're a parent, how did holding your child for the very first time forever change the way you looked at the priorities in your life? You can't possibly deny the fact that feeling such a deep sense of love changed you forever.

   Just as is true with our closest of relationships, our relationship with Jesus Christ should forever change the way that we view our priorities in life. We don't avoid doing or saying certain things because we want to gain his love, we do so simply because we love him and we would never want to do or say anything that would harm the relationship we already have with him.

   So, what does God want from us? It's very simple. He wants us to love him. If we can do that, everything else just simply falls into place.