It is easy to say God is at the center of my life, but the question is He really? If I am living my own life, making my own choices and doing nothing to put Him and keep Him at the center of my focus, He is NOT the center of my life. I can be so quick to say I love the Lord my God with all my heart, my soul, my mind, but do I? My life will be a living example of what Jesus has depicted for me to follow in the Bible. If my life is all about me, then Jesus is not at the center of my life, I am. When I am the center, chaos happens, I want what I want and I want it now. God has illustrated it in the Bible, He calls us to be set apart from the world, different, but when I make life about me, I am no different then the world. I am saying that I know better than God.
Jesus will change me, but it takes work for me to keep Him at the center, it takes me doing, it just doesn't happen. When I focus on all the outward things of myself, then I am not worried about Him at the center. God has depicted what life with Him at the center looks like, it is honoring to Him when we put Him at the center, it creates in us a pure heart, because know what I am more worried about what God says, than what others think, or at least what I think they think. When I am more worried about self, I am not worried about God at all, I know what He says, but knowing and doing are two different things. Do you know what God says about knowing and not doing? James 4:17 says "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." or James 1:22 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." It is easy to hear it, but ignore the truth, but God calls us to do what we hear, not just to hear it. John 14:23 "Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." Anyone that loves Me, will obey my teachings, because I love God more than myself, because that is the first and greatest commandment and when I do that, I want to bring honor to Him, it is no longer about I, but Christ in me. Galatians 2:20 says "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." When I start living not as I want to, but as Jesus Christ has set forth in me, it changes how I am, but I have to be willing to continue to crucify the flesh, my wants, my will, my thoughts and live as Jesus has defined in the Bible.
When I am able to allow Jesus Christ to be my strength and no longer is it about self, then I am able to stand tall, knowing it doesn't matter what others think of me, it is more important what Jesus thinks of me. That is the crutch of it all, if I am so caught up in self, I will not care what Jesus think, nor will I do what He calls me to do, because I am more worried about myself than about Him.
If you are married, look at your marriage, are you more concerned with your feelings than how God views your marriage? If I am more concerned about pleasing self, than I will not care what God says about marriage.
If you are a son or daughter, God defines how we are to be to our parents, but if you are more concerned about self and your rights, then it doesn't matter how you treat your parents, it just matters what you feel is right for you.
The list goes on, but the bottom line is, do you care more about what happens to you or what God thinks? If you care more about what God thinks, then it will be demonstrated in how you live for Him in your marriage, in your life across the board.
