If you were on a professional football team, what is the point or the team’s singular goal that would mean success or failure? Simple. You must outscore the other team. If you got confused and your goal shifted to philanthropy, some people would be very grateful, but you would divert your resources from training and running plays to other stuff and would start losing games. If you blinked and decided making more money for the franchise became your singular goal, you would divert resources. And though you might make more money, you would start to lose games. It’s not complicated. The main point of football is to outscore the other team.
If you are a Christian, what is the singular goal—the main point? Many churches find themselves majoring on behavior. “If you are obedient to God, good things will happen to you. If you fail, grab onto something solid cuz bad stuff is on its way.” No one usually says those words, but it is clear. Obedience is the main thing. Be good. Or else.
Thankfully, this is NOT the main point of Christianity.
The Answer
The main point of Christianity is to, “love God with all your heart, mind and strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
In short, pursue intimacy with God. That’s it, not obedience and not church attendance. It is not serving or giving money or gaining huge amounts of Bible knowledge. It’s simple. Are you loving God and desiring to love Him more? If you are, then all of the things above are brilliant tools or exercises that will help you in pursuing intimacy with God. BUT, if any of them become your singular goal, then they will distract you from the main goal of pursuing intimacy with God, and that’s a trap from the pit of hell.
If intimacy with God is Magnetic North, anything that is a few degrees off of that will result in you ending up ultimately in the wrong hemisphere. This is overwhelming to me because this is THE heart of Christianity and of God Himself. You can only imagine how badly Satan wants to get us onto something else, anything else. Bad things are a distraction, but so are good things.
If you make obedience the singular goal, then you are totally focused on YOU.
If you happen to have a lot of discipline and you succeed in avoiding lots of sin, you will become proud and start to look down on those who cannot do what you are doing. Pride drives you away from intimacy with God. If you do not have the discipline to pull this off, you are racked with guilt and shame for being such a loser. Again, you are way off intimacy with God. It’s a perfect trap either way. Do not fall for it.
I think of intimacy with God as a map, perhaps an old treasure map. There is a dot at the bottom that says, “You are here.” About one hundred yards straight ahead on the map is another dot. It is titled “intimacy with God.” It’s close. There is nothing in the way, no mountains or bodies of water, and no crocodiles or rats of unusual size, “ROUS” (obscure Princess Bride reference).
There will be some things you will have to surrender and release. These things will certainly require help from other believers who are further along on this journey than you are now. This is not a solo endeavor. But it is not dangerous or particularly difficult. God wants this intimacy with you far more than you ever will with Him. He will answer your prayer for this and call to you when you are lost. This place, this relationship, is what you—all of us—were created for. We long for it with a longing that was given to us by God. Think of it as a homing beacon. This longing draws us forward. Often, however, we settle for something much less.
Instead of intimacy with God, we settle for a high level of control.
Instead of falling at our Savior’s feet or into his arms, we settle for achievement or acts of service. We may come to despair that it is even possible and lose hope and just sit down on the trail feeling like a lonely and shameful failure.
It is possible to live in the presence of God. Yes, even for us today. It is a relationship, not an achievement. It is nourishing. It is delightful and peaceful, and challenging. Although confusing at times, as are all relationships, it is what God wants most with us. Please don’t settle for anything else. Cry out to God, who has been waiting all these years for you to look up and call on Him for rescue. He will answer that prayer.
I promise. Intimacy with God is not far. You can’t get there by yourself, so be humble and ask mature Christians for help. Yes, it is what you have always longed for and were created to experience. “Love God with all your heart, mind and strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
That’s the point.
