What Does God Want?

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the LORD your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good. [Deuteronomy 10.12-13]

What does God want?

He wants us to understand that He is God and He wants to be treated as God. In return, He offers good.

Now, let's look at this from the opposite side.

If we fail to understand that He is God and we fail to treat Him as God, He withholds good.

This is not limited to the Old Testament! Jesus was very clear:

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22.37-40]

What God wants and what He gives in return has not changed.

If God does not get what He wants, what He withholds has not changed.

There should never be any question in the mind of one who knows God about where good things or bad things come from. 

Good things comes from putting God first. Bad things come from not putting God first. Jesus didn't change this. What Jesus changed was that He removed the requirements of sacrifices by offering His own blood once and for all.

With Jesus, what changed for mankind was that, instead of the blood of bulls and goats accompanying mankind's devotion (obedience, repentance, reverence, thanksgiving and worship) to God, the blood of Jesus became that protocol. Never was obedience to God dismissed.

With the sacrifices of animals, mankind was bound to obedience to God. With the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, man was and is still bound to obedience to God! However, the blood of animals could not do what the blood of Jesus did. The blood of Jesus made the way for Him to live in mankind thus transferring His perfect obedience to mankind. The blood of animals could never do this!

Another thing, like obedience to God, that did not change, was the requirement for mankind to repent. Jesus Himself said, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” [Matthew 3.2]

Yes, the same Jesus Who said "Have faith in God" also said "Repent." The two go together.

Now, back to good things and bad things... If Jesus promised, "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need" [Matthew 6.33] then what should we expect if we DO NOT seek the Kingdom of God above all else? Everything we need? Or, something less? I say, something much less!

And so, in the absence of the things we need (good things, all of them), we can confidently and accurately determine that we have obviously NOT met the requirement of obedience to receive such.

Our first course of action when faced with lack and/or the onset of bad things is that we should repent. The Bible is very clear about blessings and curses. Blessings are the result of obedience to God and curses are the result of disobedience. Any confusion of these facts is distortion at best and outright heresy at worst. Jesus did not change the requirement of obedience to God. But Jesus did offer His help in obeying God! He called upon FAITH!

Faith is the only way to please God. In fact, it is impossible to please God without it. Faith is HOW we seek God first. Faith is HOW we obey God.

What I am saying is that if we obey God, good things are ours. If we disobey God, we may expect no good things. Likewise, if we disobey God, bad things are ours. And, if we obey God, we may expect no bad things! And, how do we obey God? FAITH!!!! We could try on our own to live good lives, but faith in Jesus is the only WAY. But FAITH remains the key - FAITH remains the only way to please God. 

And, how do we know if our faith has accomplished it intended goal? We will experience all the good things God promised for obedience. And, how do we know if faith has NOT accomplished its intended goal? We will experience and the bad things God promised for disobedience.

We are faced then with a dilemma. Will we acknowledge what the Bible says about good and bad, or will we resort to man-concocted doctrines of suffering that require no repentance of man, but make God out to be a loving albeit random suffering-giver? (Don't even 'go there' with Job's story - Job had to REPENT in the end...). 

If a religious doctrine EVER relieves man of the responsibility to repent in the event of suffering, then it is not a doctrine of God. Yes, I said it and the Bible supports it 100%.

Father, following my own advice, I repent before You today. There is much wrong in me and around me - it tells me clearly that there is disobedience. Forgive me for disobedience. Forgive me for not believing in Jesus. Forgive me for spiritual laziness and indifference regarding the presence of curses on and around my life.