Love your neighbor, be a cheerful giver, pray without ceasing, tell the truth, be holy! Are these God’s cruel way of piling on to an already unending list of life’s responsibilities like pay your taxes, take out the trash, fold the clothes, change the oil in the car, and most importantly, what’s for dinner? Of course not! In an attempt to reconcile God’s commands with life’s demands, some say, “put God first”. But the list never ends and if God is first, how close should second be? When the trash piles up, it needs to go out immediately!
What if in the new covenant way of grace, life is not lived by prioritized lists but by God’s preeminent love? That doesn’t mean that making “to do lists” is wrong, sinful, or less Godly, it just means that God cannot be prioritized into your life because through the finished work of Christ, He is your life. He loves you and lives in you and is involved in every “to do” you have from the most mundane to the most miraculous things in life. His commands have been fulfilled by what Jesus did and gifted to you by faith. Now life takes on a different outlook as you begin to realize all that He has called you to is His doing in and through you into all your “to do’s”! You are dearly loved, cared for, and provided for by the One who is your life so that you can enjoy, rest, work, endure, and relax in all of life’s demands!
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.