I called a business this past week and heard the following message, “Your call is important to us. Please do not hang-up the phone and we will answer your call shortly.” After three or four minutes of listening to some annoying music, the message came again. Unfortunately, this cycle continued for the next twenty minutes or so before I got to speak to a real person. “Your call is important to us” did not mean much at that point.
A husband routinely tells his wife how much he loves her and he may even show her a little kindness now and then. However, don’t let her interfere with Saturday golf or expect him to do something when the “boys” have plans. Forget about him going to a “chick-flick” or a “girly concert”, that is just not who he is. Yes, he wants to be with his wife when not much else is going on or maybe on her birthday. I wonder how long it is going to be before “I love you” does not mean much.
It is sad when our actions do not support our words, but instead betray what we say. For example, if my call is important to a business they will not routinely keep me on a long hold. They do it because they think they can get away with it and still keep my business. If my wife is second only to God, if I love her with all of my heart, then my actions will show her. The point is my actions will show what is important to me.
Many would say “God is first in my life,” “He is most important to me,” and “I love Him with every part of my being.” These are the right statements to make since He has done so much for us. God gave us life and a chance to serve Him. When we sinned, He sent His Son to pay the price for our offenses. (Col. 1:13-14) We have the Scriptures to know God and His Will. (2 Tim. 3:16-17) In essence, we love God and put Him first because of what He has done for us. (1 John 4:14) There is no doubt we are important to Him and He loves us with perfect love.
The Bible also speaks of God calling us (Acts 2:39), and so I wonder how many put Him on hold as the company did me this past week? I know this, I was not happy waiting twenty minutes for someone to answer my call, and neither is God happy when people put Him off. We have no guarantee of tomorrow and when we die God is going to hang up the phone. (Heb. 3:6-13) So if the “phone call” is important you had better answer it when you have a chance.
Members of the Lord’s church often talk about how much they love God, but do we prove our love for Him as He did for us? The Father sent His Son to die for us, the Son willingly came and offered Himself, and the Holy Spirit revealed God’s message. His actions show just how important we are to Him. (John 3:16) Now what about us? Does anyone have any trouble seeing our love for God by what we do? If we love God we will always live in a way to glorify His name because He bought with the price of Christ’s blood. (1 Cor. 6:20)
We also glorify God when we suffer as Christians for our love and faith in Him. It may even mean giving our lives to stand with Christ. This is something the early Christians knew all too well because they lived the danger every day. Thankfully we do not live with this threat in the United States yet, but in some places Saints still do. However, we do suffer enough to test and prove our love for God and faith in Christ. (1 Peter 2:12-19) If we are not strong enough to deal with mocking and the way people make fun of us, then we cannot glorify God. If we cannot handle pressures and rudeness from ungodly people, then we do not love God enough.
If you want to judge just how important God is to you and how much you love Him then look at all your little decisions in life. Those decisions will follow God’s Will in all that you say and do. (John 14:23) For example, do you “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) and do you sing when happy? (James 5:13) You will choose your friends carefully, even giving preference to Christians. (Rom. 12:10) God says “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” and so you will not. (2 Cor. 6:16) You believe what God says about immorality, even those hot button issues society wants to support. So you openly oppose abortion and homosexuality because God condemns these. (Rom. 1:18-32) You give diligence to “add to your faith” Christian qualities (2 Peter 1:5-10) and to you rightly divide the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15) God said “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” and so you attend worship faithfully. (Heb. 10:25) These are the little everyday decisions we all make and they give insight to just how important God is to us.
Terry Starling