What is most important in your life? As Christians, it should not take us that long to answer this question. Our immediate response should be God. Doing God’s will and pleasing Him should be at the top of our priority list. After all, that was first on the list of the One Whom we are supposed to be following in order to be real Christians. Listen to what Jesus said about this.

John 8:29 (ESV)
²⁹ And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

Should we not be following in the steps of Jesus? While we will not reach His spiritual height, it should be the goal at which we aim, that is, to always please our heavenly Father. So, this week let us contemplate ways in which we can please our God.

One thing we can do to please God is put Him first in our lives. This is something that God certainly expects. When Jesus was speaking of how God will take care of us by providing all of our needs, the condition He set forth was that we seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). The word kingdom is basileia and refers to the rule of God over our lives and the reign of God in our hearts. We must allow God to pilot our lives while we willingly take the position of co-pilot. In that way, all of our decisions will be based on His will, not our own. Again, we have Jesus as an example to follow.

John 4:34 (ESV)
³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Are we sustained by doing God’s will? Doing His will should be as important to us spiritually as eating food is to our physical bodies. If this is the case, pleasing God will be more important to us than being popular with people. We will put God before everyone and everything else in our lives, and this is what true discipleship demands.

Luke 14:26 (ESV)
²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

What does Jesus mean here about hating our own family? He simply means that we must love them less than we love God. We must put God before our parents, spouses, and even our children if we are going to please Him in life. In other words, God’s will must come before the wants and wishes of everyone. However, that is not the hardest part of true discipleship. Notice, we must love God more than our own lives. This is usually a big challenge to most people when is comes to daily living.

Whose will comes first in your daily lives? It is easy to say it is God, but is it so? This takes a little self-examination from time to time in order to make sure, and our examination must be honest, lest we deceive ourselves. To pull this off, by putting God before ourselves, we must follow Paul’s led. He once said, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Galatian 2:20). When we take self out of the way, we now can truly do what is pleasing to God by putting Him before everything else in our lives. When we do that, we are simply following the steps of Jesus, and that is what it really means to be a Christian.

As you wind down for the night, think on these things.