Big Rocks for Strong Christ-Followers
An Introduction – Part II
Scripture Foundation: Matthew 23:23
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”
I want to drive home my point from Part I of this introduction: Not all truths have the same importance for our lives.
That is true in most areas of our lives, but we sometimes forget that it is very true in our spiritual journey with Jesus Christ.
An expert in God’s law asked Jesus this question:
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
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 22:36-40).
If I did not know Jesus’s answer, and someone asked me that same question, I would have answered: “They are all equally important!”
As Christ-followers, we believe that all that Jesus taught is true. With Jesus’s answer in mind, can you agree with me that all His teachings do not carry the same weight of importance?
Jesus did not say, in the verse above, that there were no other important commandments. He said that those two were the most important.
Putting together this verse with the verse we read in yesterday’s devotion (Matthew 23:23), we can deduce that Jesus wants His followers to build priorities in their lives.
I want to call the priorities that Jesus wants his followers to build in their lives the “Big Rocks”. These Big Rocks are what strong and mature Christ-followers put into practice for their daily lives.
All of us have many things in our lives that call for our attention. Most of these things are NOT sinful in and of themselves.
However, among those many things are some very important things that must come first in a Christ-follower’s life. If we work hard at keeping them first, the result will be strength in our faith and maturity in our walk with God through Jesus Christ.
Father, grant wisdom that I might choose the most important things in my life, In Jesus’s name, amen.