One Thing

" You are not a better person because you are praised; neither are you any worse if somebody denigrates you.  God knows what you are.  People consider actions, but God evaluates intentions."
                                                                             Thomas a Kempis, author, The Imitation of Christ



     God knows every heart, thought, and action of His created.  Most importantly, though, God examines our motives.  In fact, the Bible says that God even weighs our motives to determine if they are adequate or deficient.  The book of Proverbs tells us that, " All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but it is the Lord who weighs the motives."  ( Proverbs 16:2).

     I don't know about you, but this thought can be quite unsettling to me at times.  It would be nice to believe that we always have clean hands and a pure heart, but not quite realistic.  In fact, there is rarely a day that goes by in my life where it is not necessary to make a course correction in my attitude or my motives.  How grateful I am for God's abundant grace!

     Oftentimes, I have good intentions for the day at hand, but I don't always have the determination to see it to fruition.  This is because it is very easy for me to lose focus and not remain single-minded. It seems there are distractions, diversions, and detours at every turn.

     Thankfully, God faithfully provides us with examples of people in the Bible who successfully aligned their priorities with God. There are three that stand out to me who were able to keep the main thing the main thing : David, Mary ( the sister of Martha and Lazarus), and Paul. These three individuals understood the importance of communing with God.

     God refers to David as a man after His own heart.  In the 27th Psalm, David reveals what his top priority is.  He says, " One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple."  ( Psalm 27:4).

     Everyday, David took the time to fellowship with God and seek direction from Him.  David realized that the most important part of his life was the part that only God could see.  In spending time with God, David witnessed not only the glory of God's character, but also the richness of His goodness and favor to His people.  Meditating on the wonders of God's grace while he gazed on the beauty of his God, David surrendered his whole heart in complete abandon to his beloved.

     Another person who chose the best of priorities was Mary.  As Jesus and His disciples were traveling to Jerusalem, they stopped at Mary and Martha's home ( Luke 10: 38-42).  Martha was frenetically working and worrying over preparing the dinner for them. Mary, on the other hand, sat on the floor absorbing every word Jesus had to say.

     This agitated Martha! When she tried to get Jesus to rebuke Mary for not helping her, Jesus rose to Mary's defense.  He said,  " Martha, dear friend, you are so upset over all these details!  There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it- and I won't take it away from her!"  ( Luke 10:42).

     Mary understood that what she did with Christ was far more important than what she did for Christ.  Defying society's conventions, Mary cared more for the Lord than doing what was culturally appropriate. Mary's priority was Jesus first, followed by her concern for others, leaving herself as the third priority.  As Christ followers, we are ambassadors, neighbors, and worshippers. The greatest of these three is to be a worshipper.

     The apostle Paul is the third example of someone who was closely aligned with God's priorities. Even though he got off to a rocky start,  Jesus told Ananias that Paul was " a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel". ( Acts 9:15). God would then allow Paul to pen fourteen out of twenty-seven books in the New Testament.

     In the third chapter of Philippians, Paul describes himself as an athlete for the sake of the Gospel.  He addresses his spiritual vigor as he presses toward the finish line in the Christian faith.  While he admits he has not attained complete satisfaction in his spiritual journey, he emphasizes his most important accomplishment.

     He says, " One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  ( Philippians 3:13b-14).

     In other words, Paul had decided that he was going to run the race in such a way that he would win.  He chose to respond to the upward, onward call on his life with his whole heart.  His concern was not to compete with other believers, but to continue to grow into the likeness of Christ.  His eyes were on Jesus and he was passionately pursuing becoming like Him.  He was willing to give everything he had in order to accomplish this goal.

     Despite the obstacles Paul had encountered, he was determined to finish strong.  The life he had been given paled in comparison to the goal set before him.  He stated, " Neither do I esteem my life dear to myself, if only I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have obtained from [which was entrusted to me by] the Lord Jesus, faithfully to attest to the good news (gospel) of God's grace."  (Acts 20:24).

     If you were to evaluate the lives of : David, Mary, and Paul to determine the "one thing" that propelled their lives, I believe it would be their passionate, relentless pursuit of God.  Each one of them loved God with a fiery zeal that fueled their existence.  Their motivation and intention was to give God their whole heart and trust Him to sort out the other details.  As a result, they fulfilled God's purposes for their lives.

     Determining our "one thing" is very crucial to our faith.  It poses the following questions:

       * What is the "one thing" that drives your life?
       * What is the "one thing" you lack to be everything God has called you to be?  ( Mk 10:21)
       * What is the "one thing" you know when it comes to your relationship to Christ?  (Jn 9:25)
       * What is the " one thing" in your life that you love the most?  (Rev 2:4)
       * What is the "one thing" to which you are willing to devote your life with everything that is in you?


     If we want power in our lives, we have to concentrate and focus on the main thing.  If a river is allowed to overflow, it will become a swamp.  But, if that river is dammed up and controlled, it becomes a source of power.  It all comes down to a matter of our values and priorities- that is, living for the "one thing" that matters the most.



When Jesus was asked about the most important thing, He replied, " You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. "  ( Matthew 22:37).