What is the Main Thing God Gets Out of Your Life?

12 Jan What is the Main Thing God Gets Out of Your Life?

Blog Series: Renew Your Mind ~ Transform Your Life

The main thing God gets out of your life is the person you become. 

Dallas Willard is famous for saying that the main thing God gets out of your life is not the things you do, but the person you become. He also makes the corresponding point that the main thing we get out of our lives is the person we become.

These points strike me as true. Therefore, I became convinced that the highest purpose of life is to become the greatest person we can become in God’s eyes before we die. That way, God and we both get that which is most deeply meaningful.

This simply means, as the Bible makes clear, becoming like Jesus. There is no mystery or secret here… just a clever way of making the point. As Willard also says, “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus is if He were you.”

This process of “becoming” what God wants us to be is a deeply satisfying experience (Galatians 5:22-23). The problem is that so many of us have tried to become what God wants us to become, failed (often repeatedly) and quit, or dropped back into maintenance mode assuming that this is the best it is going to get.

But as I said last week, there is truth hidden in plain sight in the Bible; truth that I knew about, but didn’t truly understand, for years. But I believe that God is illuminating that truth to His children now, in the Brave New World of the 21^st century, because we need it now, in this generation, more than we have ever needed it before.

The central passage for change in the Bible is Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We can be living demonstrations of the fact that God’s will is good and acceptable and perfect, but only as we are transformed. And we will only be transformed as our minds are renewed. Mental renewal is the key to becoming the greatest person we can become in God’s eyes before we die.

Mental renewal is the make-or-break, do-or-die, sink-or-swim issue of the 21^st century. 

There are three sets of truth we must understand and embrace to renew our minds.

1. We must abandon ourselves to an eternal perspective.
2. We must embrace our true spiritual nature.
3. We must become our own brain surgeons.

These are the three subjects we are going to be looking at in our time ahead. Each one is the top of a “pull-down menu” revealing vital sub-categories. But as we learn and embrace these three sets of truth, we embark on a mental renewal process that can transform our lives.

There are two clarifications as we proceed

1. The change we long for will never be quick or easy.

Change is possible, but not quick and easy. We would prefer to be like the frog in the fairy tale that gets kissed by a princess and “Poooooffff!” we are changed… instantly, totally, permanently.

One second, we are a green warty little frog, and the next, we are a ridiculously handsome prince who lives happily ever after! Or, if you are female, reverse it.

That’s what we want. But if you haven’t noticed, it doesn’t work that way in real life.

When we become a Christian, we get “kissed” by God and, in our inner man. In our spirit, there is a complete and permanent “poof” (Ephesians 4:24). But in our outer man, in our intellect, emotions and will, it’s an incomplete and slow process, more like a “pffffftttt” than a “poooooofffff.” We have to grow toward Christ-likeness in our attitudes, values and behavior, rather than being changed in the twinkling of an eye.  (2 Peter 3:18)

2. God understands and accepts our weaknesses

Our brains have been so diminished by the “Fall,” our wills so contaminated by the world, our hearts so blinded by the enemy, that our response to God’s love is deeply disabled, like a skeletal, diseased-ravaged athlete trying to become an Olympic gold-medalist.

But God doesn’t want superpowers from us, or artificial transformation that requires no struggle. God understands our limitations (Psalm 103:14).

What moves Him is our love (Matthew 22:37-38) and faith (Hebrews 11:6), not sudden and dramatic change. We can love Him and trust Him even when we are not changing as rapidly as we wish. As we do, God is pleased (Psalm 103:14).

Conclusion

Next week, we will begin to unpack the first essential thing to help us change: abandoning ourselves to an eternal perspective. We must see reality as God sees it, otherwise we will be like a person trying to play soccer while God is playing basketball. It won’t work.

When we get on the same page with God, we have the starting point for beginning to become the person God wants us to be.

In case you’re new here

This blog post is part of a series titled “Renew Your Mind, Transform Your Life”, introduced on January 5, 2021. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives at www.maxanders.com.

Invite others to join us

If you know anyone who you think might enjoy joining us in this study, please forward this blog to them and encourage them to sign up for the free video, “Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You.” This will put them on my regular mailing list and they’ll receive my weekly blogs on this subject.

I look forward to going through this life-changing journey with you.

UPDATE: We are moving from this blog to a YouTube channel in early 2024. I’ll keep you posted regarding the transition. If you’re not already on my email list, subscribe here so you don’t miss any updates – you’ll also receive my free video, Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You.

In the meantime, while I’m getting the YouTube channel ready, all of the past blog posts are still available – and you know that “repetition is the key to mental ownership!” 

We recently finished a series titled “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective,”  in which I “connected all the dots” from posts over the years and combined them into a “spiritual game plan.” That series is a great place to start.

I look forward to seeing all of you on my new YouTube channel in 2024 to further discuss how to walk closer with God and live better in life.

Two resources I’ve created to help build your biblical base for a closer walk with God:

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