What Matters Most to God?

I've had this thought stirring around in my head for weeks now, and it has been consuming my mind, and finding its way into several conversations and situations.

I was listening to a podcast, and the speaker made the passing statement, "What matters more to God than anything?"

I'm sure the rest of the podcast was awesome, but I don't remember any of it. My mind was captivated by this question.

What matters more to God than anything?

There are so many answers that come to mind. Faith for starters. God wants us to be a people of faith. Then other words came rushing in, obedience, forgiveness, and sacrifice.

Then it hit me, the answer is so simple. What matters more to God than anything? People.

People matter more to God than anything else. Not just a particular type of people, not people from a particular place, just people. All people.

This may seem like a pretty simple concept and not worth your read yet, but stick with me for a moment.

So how does this apply when you have conflict with someone? Well, you can't write them off, you can't vilify them, and you can't forget about them. They are extremely important to God, therefore, they should matter to you.

The same idea applies when you are helping friends work through difficulty. You can't push one friend away in order to draw the other close. They both matter.

As this phrase has been going through my head constantly the last couple weeks, I find myself challenged daily to forgive more, to let things go quickly, and to choose to try again with people, and to try again in difficult situations.

The ultimate goal is to see people as God sees them. To see them as incredibly valuable, and to fully grasp that just like you, they matter more to God than anything else.

I pray you are encouraged and challenged with this reality this week!