What does God want from me?

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Isaiah 29:13

What does God want from you?

No, really. Take a moment and answer the question. What does God want from you?

I'm convinced that many "Christians" think that all God wants from them is to believe in Jesus. As long as they believe then they can go on living their lives however they want. But God wants so much more than lip service from you. He wants your heart. God has called us not to mere belief, but to discipleship.

Discipleship, as I understand it, is a way of life that helps you become more and more like Jesus. It is a 100% commitment to giving all of yourself to God and none of yourself to this world. God has commanded us, "Be holy because I am holy" (Leviticus 19:2).

Yet, many Christians are not holy today. We are no longer set apart from and different from the world. We no longer strive to keep ourselves clean and unspotted from sin. In fact, we love the things of the world. We rush home to watch TV shows that are filled with things the Bible commands us not to do. They turn sin into a punch line and we not only eat it up ourselves but we feed it to our children as well. We gossip, slander, and are jealous of what others have. We lust and engage in sex outside of marriage. We are arrogant and greedy. We are gluttons and liars. We use the Lord's name in empty ways. We  run after sin every chance we get, but struggle to spend five minutes in God's Word.

How often this is true of me! How often I just go through the motions. I parrot all the right words in all the right ways, but my heart is far from the Lord. We wonder why the church in America is in decline. More and more recently God has been showing me why my own ministry is not stronger. There is a lack of holiness in my life. There is a real lack of holiness in America. Choose this day whom you will serve (Josh 24:15), but count the cost first (Luke 14:25-33). God is not looking for any half-hearted lies. He wants your all. Will you give it to Him?

If so, what do you need to cut out of your life today?


For further reading...

• Mark 7:1-23- See what Jesus had to say about this passage. 
• Luke 14:25-33- Jesus says that if you don't give up everything, you can't be His disciple.