5 Most Important Things in Life: Part 1 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” the Apostle Paul

Philippians 3:7-8a

Transcript

Good morning. This week I want to talk with you about the 5 most important things in life.

Each day I want to talk about a different one. And you know, every weekday at this time, we open God’s word, the Bible, and just listen to Him and let Him shape and direct our lives.

Well, what is the most important thing in your life? Number one, your personal relationship with God.

1. Your personal relationship with God.

This is true whether you feel like you have a good relationship with God or a bad relationship with God. It doesn’t matter. It’s the most important thing in your life. It’s the one thing you have to get right in life is your relationship with God. And you know, so many things in our lives offend God and put distance between us and Him. Our conscience tells us that we’ve done things that are wrong, and we feel like, well, what would God want to do with me.

But the reality is that God loves you so deeply, and He has come into our world in the person of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to take the judgement of God for our sins so that we could experience the forgiveness of God and become a part of God’s family.

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The Bible says to as many as received Him, He gave the right to become children of God.

And when you make that decision to put your trust in what God has done for you, to give you forgiveness, not something you earn, something He gives you, then you start a life of a relationship with God as His son or his daughter, and that becomes the most important thing in your life.

The apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3 said about his own journey through life, Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

It’s this personal relationship with God that changes your life. You know, it’s so different from just doing religious things. You may have this sense, well, to be right with God, I’ve just got to do all the religious things, never miss church, always do this and that and all the list of things you think you have to do, the churchy things to be right with God.

And of course, being involved in church and hearing God’s word taught, all these things are so good and positive, but only if they are tied to your relationship with God. In the Old Testament, it was the people of Israel who God had revealed Himself to, and they were following the things that God said they should do in terms of meeting together and having assemblies and offering their sacrifices, and God says to them at one point, I hate your solemn assemblies. I hate your sacrifices because your heart is far from me.

What God is concerned about is not those religious activities you’re doing to try to be right with Him. Yes, do them, but do them to grow your relationship with Him. Get to know Him.

Listen again to what Paul says. I count everything else as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

I wonder today, do you know God in that personal way, or do you just have a religiosity, or maybe you don’t even have that religiosity and God is not a part of your life.

In any case, I want to tell you that the most important thing in your life is your personal relationship with God. If you feel like you’re searching for something in your life, that something is missing, that things aren’t right, what is missing is God. You need God in your life. He brings hope in the most hopeless situations, and in the best happy situations – He’s there to share it with you. He is the source of life.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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