Slightly Obsessed #220: We Only Have One Job

Pamela Thorson

August 8, 2018

Articles

Because He has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;

I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.

He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and honor him.

With a long life I will satisfy him

And let him see My salvation.

– Psalm 91:14-16

God gives us just one job.

Not that you’d know it by watching God’s people sometimes. We just can’t believe that our duty to God could be that simple. Besides, most of us have a bit of the Pharisee in us, and straining gnats from our spiritual lives makes us feel more secure than coughing up the camel of compulsive religiosity. We want to gain God’s approval by our performance, even though we know that it took Jesus’ sacrifice to wash away the filthiness of our own righteousness.

The Martha in us makes everything so hard, when the Lord is calling us to be Mary, running toward the sound of His voice; sitting in stillness as His feet; not wasting a moment of our time with Him in distracted busyness. We belong at His feet, gazing in adoration at His face, clinging to His every word.

In Jesus’ day, one of the Pharisees tried to test Jesus by asking Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

To this Jesus answered, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.” -Matthew 22:24-28.

Our one job? Love God.

And we are not just called to love Him, but to adore Him desperately, passionately, with everything we are and speak and think. A love this great purifies us. It inspires us to action, so the things we do for Him are not to acquire spirituality or to gain God’s ear. They are, instead, the response of a devoted heart.

When God sees this, He rejoices over us with these great “I wills:”

I will deliver him.
I will set him securely on high.
I will answer him when he calls upon Me.
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and honor him.
I will satisfy him with a long life and let him see My salvation.

All that we seek to find in God doesn’t come from straining to gain His love, but from giving Him ours. He loved us before the world was even set into space. He has proven His love to us in every way possible.