What Matters
What Matters
What matters to you? What really matters? Think about it and make a list of all the things that truly matter in your life. I know you are tempted to just make a list in your mind – but please write them down. I would imagine you will list things like “my relationship with the Lord, my family, the health of my family members”. Am I right? Keep going…dig a little deeper! Be sure to include every single thing that comes to your mind. How can we ever hold hands and master what matters if we are not even sure what that is. I promise this will be a beneficial exercise and you will be glad you did it. What matters to you? Think about it. What brings you immense joy? What riles you up and causes your blood pressure to rise? What breaks your heart and causes you to want to jump into action? List it. You may need to take some time to make your list. No worries. Go do that.
Take a look at your list. Read it out loud. Did you list what you wished mattered to you or were you painfully honest? Did you remember to add the things that you would rather not have on your list? Sorry! We really do need to go there. If it matters to you add it to the list. Do you need to add any of these…people’s opinions of me; my level of success; my physical appearance; money; my child’s accomplishments; my popularity; my hair; stopping the aging process; appearing to be perfect; being right; recognition; affirmation; my golf/tennis game; my favorite sports team; cleanliness; alcohol/drugs; revenge; finding fault in others; getting my way; protecting myself; desire to be understood; and on and on and on. You get the idea. List what matters to you – even though you are not happy about it. I promise it will be worth it. Being real with your self is good. A little introspective research allows the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us that He can help us resolve.
Once you are honest and acknowledge all the things that matter to you, look at your list. What does it say about you? What matters to YOU? What is your heart’s greatest desire? What do you think matters most? Is it evident? Is it clear? Will it out live you? Does the life you are living right now reflect what matters to you? If not, were you honest in your list making? Will what matters most to you, what you live for, what you put so much time and effort into – will it go on after you are gone? Does it have purpose? Does it have lasting effects? Would you be proud if it was inscribed on your tombstone?
Are you a little disappointed in your list? My list is messed up, too. I have things on my list that I want to scribble off. Yet, they still matter to me. The good news is that once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He is the “spirit of truth”, He is our teacher, our counselor. He is our helper. As we look at our list, He will reveal to each of us what should not be there and even pierce our heart because we did not write some of the ugly realities down. As we surrender all of our being – our thoughts, our opinions, our desires, our hurts, our habits, our unbelief - then God continues His transformation of us. You see, it is not enough to just accept Jesus as our Savior. That is just the beginning of our journey of becoming who God is calling us to be.
God wants more of you! God wants you to know Him more. He is more than you can imagine. He loves you more than you already know. He has so much more for you. He has so much more for me. Can we do this together? Can we continue on this journey to master what matters? Will you do me a favor and comment on this post and list what you believe matters most. There is no wrong answer. List what matters most to you. And if you are brave enough, list what matters to you that you hope to erase soon. It is when we are willing to be transparent that God can use us. We are all flawed and damaged, just trying to figure this out together. Here I will go first…here is a snippet of my long list.
- My relationship with Jesus matters most. I desire to inspire others to fall in love with Him. (Please note: I am not trying to impress you. This is a burden and it is heavy...rewarding and fulfilling – but overwhelming.)
- My family matters! I adore each of them and desire to encourage their relationship with their Savior. I want to leave a legacy of loving and serving God. My family and their salvation matters.
- Living out my purpose matters. I desire to do whatever it is that God wants me to do. I long to be obedient to Him. I must stay close to Him if I am to know what He is calling me to do.
- “One” of the ugly…I care way too much about what people think of me. God is teaching me some painful lessons and showing me that His opinion is the one that truly matters. I am working to cross off pleasing people and replace with pleasing the One who gave His life for me.
(There are many more on my list. I have had a jump start and given this a lot of thought over the last two years. Take time and develop your list.)
Please let me hear from you.
Throughout the fall, we will keep this discussion going. We will talk about the things that matter and try to erase the things that simply do not really matter off our list. God is so good. He tells us that He shall give us the desires of our heart. We must learn to depend on Him. We must get to know Him more, deeper, more intimately. When our desires spring forth from Him, He will surely fulfill them in our life.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
As I close this post, I wanted to share something with you. As I was doing a little research, I stumbled across something I thought you would enjoy. This is from www.GotQuestions.org. “We can continue to seek to guide our own lives, which results in emptiness, or we can choose to pursue God and His will for our lives with a whole heart, which will result in living life to the full, having the desires of our hearts met, and finding contentment and satisfaction. This is so because our Creator loves us and desires the best for us (not necessarily the easiest life, but the most fulfilling).
The Christian life can be compared to the choice of whether to purchase the expensive seats at a sporting event that are close to the action, or pay less and watch the game from a distance. Watching God work “from the front row” is what we should choose but, sadly, is not what most people choose. Watching God work firsthand is for whole-hearted disciples of Christ who have truly stopped pursuing their own desires to pursue instead God's purposes. They have paid the price (complete surrender to Christ and His will); they are experiencing life to its fullest; and they can face themselves, their fellow man, and their Maker with no regrets. Have you paid the price? Are you willing to? If so, you will not hunger after meaning or purpose again.” You can read the entire post by visiting http://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-of-life.html
I am in! Are you? Instead of telling God what matters to me – let’s ask Him to teach us what matters to Him. When those two things align, we will be sitting in the good seats. Together we can stay focused on pursing what matters. Let’s add this to our list…
- Sitting in the good seats – getting up close and personal – getting to know God matters to me! Getting to know what matters to Him matters to me.
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