What Does God Want From Us?

These verses are saying the same thing.

“I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream.
Am 5:21‭-‬24 NKJV

Think about where Jesus talks about how few are saved, yet many TRY to enter but cannot.

Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
Lu 13:23‭-‬24 NKJV

These are the very ones who insist that they did things in His Name, yet He says He never knew them. The door is closed to them, and He does not open it.

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’  then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’  But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
Lu 13:25‭-‬28 NKJV

Here is another place it says the same thing as these other verses. Our effort and will is dirty menstrual rags to God, and all that we do according to our will is evil by nature and God hates these things. He desires the contrite and surrendered heart that glorifies Him as God. This is the proper humility of the creature before the Creator, and is the place where the confession of Jesus as Lord is true. This is when God regenerates a man according to Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it  is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is  within my heart.”
Ps 40:6‭-‬8 NKJV

Love vs. Law

This is a topic that God is having me meditate on quite a bit lately. A dictator lays out the law and then uses force to create fear, producing adherence to their will. This is how the world sees relationship. You see it everywhere. The powerful lord it over the less fortunate in oppression until there is finally a revolt.

This is not just seen in corporate context, but also in individual context. We have terms like "alpha male" and "alpha female" for the overbearing in each sex, and "the one who wears the pants" in a relationship. These things are praised in our culture, for we are all equally deceived as to how a relationship should function. It is in this deception that our view of God is also distorted.

Because we have a tainted view of relationships, and do not know or understand true love, we assume that God functions in this same dysfunctional manner. We view the Law of God as something laid down by a cruel dictator, and listen for the cracking of lightening being sent from Heaven to strike those who fail to bend to His will. If God were anything like us, then surely He would squash us like bugs for not bending to His will.

When Jesus came, he brought a whole new idea with Him. Those of us that belong to Him hear His Word, and we obey. We do not obey out of fear, but rather out of relationship. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom. Through KNOWING the love that God has for us, of which He FIRST loved us, we then have a desire to love Him.

When we begin to know God, understanding what He has done for us, and what He desires, we are transformed, and so is every relationship we have a part in. This is why we are a "new creation", we begin to function and be different from how the rest of the world sees things and believes. It is not because we are better rule followers, or because we are better people, but rather because we know love and relationship.

This understanding then transcends everything we do, think, say, and believe. As a parent I am no longer interested in "laying down the law", and making sure my children do what I think they should. Instead, I live out my faith and relationship with God, and I love my children. I focus on the relationship, building something that will last through whatever we may endure in life together, knowing that from that relationship they will have trust in my direction and love for them.

With our spouse, the need for our "right" dissipates, and I am not concerned about who is "wearing the pants". I can serve my wife faithfully, striving to know her and build a relationship with her, because I know that it is that relationship that will hold us together when the challenges of life are difficult.

Love Over Everything. This life is ALL about relationships, and this understanding comes from forming a working relationship with the living God. This should be our focus, and then the fruit of this relationship will pour out into our lives. This is the Gospel. This is what Jesus has done for us. He has opened the gates to Heaven, and no man can close what He has opened. Repent and turn to God that you may be healed.

OBEDIENCE TO...

There is so much talk about being obedient to the Bible, to the Law, to the Word. I think it is EXTREMELY important to address this is issue straight from the Word, and directly through the Gospel. I will try to be as concise as possible, using the Word to interpret itself as to avoid any outside influence, and go through a direct line of thinking. Most of the books in the New Testament address this very issue, so this is nothing new.


The purpose of the Law:


But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
- 1 Timothy 1:8-11


Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.  But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
- Galatians 3:21-25


Jesus and the Law:


"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
- Matthew 5:17-19


For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
- Romans 10:4


Faith VS. Law:


But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.


“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
- Galatians 2:14-21


For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
- Galatians 3:10-12


For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”
- Romans 10:5


Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
- Galatians 5:1-6


Faith working through love:


Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
- Matthew 22:37-40


“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another."
- John 15:11-17


Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
- 1 John 2:3-6


And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
- 1 John 3:23


Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
- James 4:17


If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
- 1 John 4:20-21


Conclusion:


So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- James 2:12-13


LOVE OVER EVERYTHING, and that love is the PROOF of sonship with the living God.