What Really Matters In Life

Reference: Mark 12:29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’” 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” 

Observation: Jesus shows us here that the most important issue, both towards God and towards people, is simply the quality of our relationships with them. Think of all the books that have been written, and how much time has been spent dealing with the nuance of what God requires of us and how to please Him. Think of all that has been said about our responsibilities towards each other.
Much of that is true and there is nothing wrong with studying and understanding it, but how often do we first approach God and each other based on a performance standard rather than a relational one? Our relationships, many times, are weak because we are more concerned about how people perform than we are committed to loving them. We are sure that God will love us more if we can simply perform up to the standard we set for ourselves. Our focus becomes what we are doing for Him much more than how we are being with Him, how we are loving Him.
Jesus made this radical statement to bring us back face to face with what matters; falling in love with God totally and completely and learning to let Him love others completely through us. It’s that simple, let’s not complicate it. 

Application/Confession: I am just so sure in my heart that if I do a little more for God, if I spend a few more hours a week serving Him or more time in prayer He will be more pleased with me. This same mentality causes me to make my relationships with people be about what they should do or what I should do rather than how we should be together.
I want to be free from this performance trip. I want to live in love (for God and for others), and for that to be enough. 

PRAYER: Lord, thank You for loving me. Teach me, help me to simply love You in return and to, finally, see that this is what You want from me more than anything else. Free me from what I have falsely learned all my life that the more I do, the more I will be loved and teach me to make relationship, love for You and people my most important concern.