By far the most important question of a Christian’s life can easily become the one least likely asked — “What Does God Want?”.  We concern ourself with “what do I want”, “what does my family want”, “what do my friends want”, what does the public want”, “what does my church want”, even “what does the un-churched want” — and so often we let questions like those drive us to action without ever considering that what God wants is far and away more important than anything else.

Most of the time I don’t think it is deliberate, we just don’t take the time to listen.  We anticipate that knowing what God wants is either impossible or too difficult to ascertain so we settle for what people want.  Yet in this settling, we often wonder why we don’t experience the success and satisfaction that we long for.

Fortunately, God is not silent about what He wants.  As He calls us to a life of discipleship, we take instruction from His Word and listen for the life application that He calls us to.

Here is what He told those who would follow Him as He led them out of Egypt: “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”  (Deuteronomy 10:12-13 NIV)

He gave essentially the same answer in slightly different language generations later through the prophet Micah: “He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6:9 NIV)

Simple, right? 🙂  Well, at least simple to read.  Yet if it was so simple, we would probably not have such a difficult time living the Christian life between Sundays.  Here are some tough questions we ought to ask ourself each day:

• How do I fear the LORD my God today?
• Am I really walking in “all His ways” today?
• How is my love for God expressed today?
• How does God want me to serve Him with all my heart and soul today?
• Am I being careful to observe ALL the LORD’s commands and decrees today?
• Am I acting “justly” in all of my relationships with people and with God today?
• If I really love mercy, how does God want me to express that today?
• Am I “walking humbly” with every step, word, thought, and action that I have today?

What does God want?  God wants faithful children who seek Him with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength and who love their neighbor as themself.  I pray that you and I live each and every day according to God’s answer to the most important question ever, “What does God want?”!