“What do you think the most important thing in life is?”
The question came out of nowhere. I was finishing my shift at work – sorting the deliveries while carrying on a casual conversation with the delivery guy. It was during a lull in our conversation that he stoped, looked at me, and asked that burning question.
What do you think the most important thing in life is?
The words lingered in my mind long after the delivery man left. They forced me to think carefully and deeply about my life and the things that really matter.
The Most Important Thing
There are many important things in life. Faith, family, friends, and health to name a few. But what is the most important thing?
The word important means “of great significance” and involves both positive and negative consequences.
The things we view as most important in life will affect how we live. They will determine how we spend our time and our money. They will influence our decisions.
Jesus told us that the greatest commandment, the one that sums up the entire Old Testament, is “you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
The last words Jesus spoke to His disciples before He left earth were, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:15-16)
The gospel Jesus commanded the disciples to preach is summarized in 1 Corinthians; “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (15:3-4)
The reason Christ died for our sins, was so we might have a relationship with God. (1 Peter 3:20)
The Bible makes it pretty clear that knowing and loving Jesus is the most important thing in life.
Like most Christians, I knew intellectually the most important thing in life is Jesus. But the question burned deeper than my intellect and challenged my heart to be honest; what currently is the most important thing in my life?
What we believe isn’t determined by what we say we believe. It is proven by how we live.
Do you live like Jesus is the most important thing?
Unfortunately, a lot of Christians say Jesus is the most important thing in life, but He is not the most important thing in their life.
We forget that a relationship means ongoing communication, time, and trust. A relationship with Jesus is not about one day asking Him to save you. It’s about daily walking with and loving our Lord.
I want to invite you to do some soul searching with me. Examine your life. Does the way you live reveal that the most important thing to you is Jesus? Or is your time, energy, focus and money spent on something other than Christ?
- What do you think about as you fall asleep at night?
- What is the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning?
- How do you spend your money?
- Where do you spend your free time?
- Is there a relationship in your life that you can’t imagine living without?
- Is there an activity in your life that you can’t imagine living without?
- Is there anything you own that you could never ever get rid of?
Our answers to these questions indicate what is most important to us. Anything more important than God in our life is what the Bible calls an idol. An idol is anything that takes the place only God was meant to fill.
Jesus is the most important thing in life. Not just because He says He is. But because nothing will have a greater effect on your life than your relationship with Jesus. If we really believe this, we need to get serious about destroying those idols and living like Jesus is our Lord and life.
Removing Idols
If there is something in your life that has been more important to you than Jesus, the first step to take is confessing that to God.
This involves calling idols what they are – idols. Stop justifying them and start agreeing with God’s word that they have an unhealthy hold on your life and have stolen the throne of your heart.
Ask God to forgive you and accept Christ’s forgivingness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Then we must allow Christ to completely remove those idols from the throne of our hearts. We must allow Christ to come and sit on His rightful throne.
We do this by replacing the time, energy, and focus we spent on our idols with Christ.
Prioritize your relationship with Jesus over all other things in life. This doesn’t mean we need to get rid of all our friends, or delete social media (although it might). But it does mean we need to keep Jesus as the focus of our life and the center of our relationships. It means bringing every aspect of our life into agreement with His word. It means setting aside time to seek Him before all other things.
Jesus is the Most Important Thing
Let me be the delivery guy in your life, stopping you in the middle of your normal day to ask you a rather direct question.
What do you think is the most important thing in life?
What does the way you live and the thoughts you think, say is the most important thing in your life?
The truth is, your relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in life. Allow Christ to search your heart and see if you are spending your life on lesser things that cannot satisfy or last. Choose to make Jesus the center of your life, the King of your heart, and the most important in your time, thoughts and decisions.