Christians sometimes make a habit of prioritising everything else in place of God. The theme of this
year, inspired by Joshua 24, is to make a conscious declaration to serve God. Pledging complete
loyalty to Him. This requires us to do away with every distraction that prevents God from taking
centre stage in our lives. Does the bible not say to worship God with all our heart, all our soul and all
our strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)? As a christian, you need to understand the value of God in your
life. You can spend a lot of time in the church, but not actually be in Christ.

When something is valuable to you, you often do not need prompting to do anything associated with it. Sadly, many christians do no value God. This is reflected in how so many only pray and seek Him when they are in need. But that is not true worship. That is merely using God to obtain what we want. There is a
difference being a true worshiper and a needy person. A worshiper understands the value of God
and seeks to live by His decrees, whereas a needy christian constantly asks from God but pays no
attention to living a life worthy of Christ. In essence they seek the gift, but not the giver.
Understanding this principle will help you regard God with the reverence awe, and honour deserving
of the all mighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. The owner of life and everything in it.
Knowing God’s place in your life, requires you to be able to be a follower. Therefore, to be able to
follow, you need to value that which is leading you. There should be a sense of humility from within
to permit yourself to be led without allowing pride to take over. Sometimes the positions we hold in
the body of Christ impacts our ability to be humble. Perhaps being in leadership, or as a child of a
church leader you may begin to feel like you are extremely prayerful, or have full knowledge of the
scriptures. You can then start to value your own opinion over God. Even a leader needs to be able to
follow God in order to lead a congregation. Failure to do so will inevitably result in teachings born of
human wisdom instead of inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself. That is why we see certain occurrences
within the church community that go against the morals of God.
It takes a heart of surrender to allow Christ to live within us. It is a conscious decision to humble
yourself before Him. Only then can you be empowered by the word of God as it directs you in the
way that God wants. God has to qualify you in order for you to take up certain positions. Exodus 19:5
teaches us that obedience qualifies us to be God’s chosen. Obedience requires sacrifice and
complete surrender. Abraham obeyed God’s instruction to move from his fathers house, and it was
only when he arrived at the place God had stipulated that he was blessed. If you do not walk
specifically according to the instruction, you will not truly be aligned to God’s plan. God is able and
wants to do so much more for you, but His ways are not a part time commitment; God needs to be
your priority.
You may ask yourself what steps do I need to align myself to God’s plan? Well, for the most part, you
just need think back to every word God has spoken into your life, reflect on every revelation you got
from His scripture and there you will find what He expects of you. Do not allow the difficulty of the
task at hand to bring about resistance in you. God is always with you, even when things seem hard.
Matthew 4:18-22- When Jesus came into the lives of those first disciples, they immediately left what
they were doing to follow Him. There is a difference between actually following and briefly taking a
look to see what is happening before returning to what you were doing before. You see, when those
first disciples chose to follow Jesus, they completely left what they were doing. They were fishermen
by trade, so in essence they left their entire livelihood for the gospel. The disciples decided that Jesus
was more important than what they were doing and in that instantaneous moment decided on a
lifetime commitment of discipleship. The value of Jesus was revealed to them in such a profound
way, they simply could not remain as they were.
When you decide to be a Christian there are two different things that can happen. One being that
you make that lifetime commitment, the other being that you merely follow Jesus as a convenience

only when you need Him. To surrender to Christ means that whatever you do somehow benefits the
work of God. If your plans are focused elsewhere, you cannot follow Jesus. For example, when
building a house, you undoubtably lose money first in buying the materials needed for the
construction. However, that is part of the process required to obtain a completed house. If you
decide to be a Christian, you need to understand that there is a cost involved. But when the value of
God is revealed to you in the same way as the first disciples, forgoing certain things become as
natural as breathing.
Matthew 28:19-20 outlines the Great Commission. It is an instruction for everyone. We are all pieces
in a greater jigsaw puzzle to fulfil this instruction. Everyone has a part to play. You cannot say that
you love Jesus if you are not concerned for His work. You need to willingly get involved in whatever
outreach activities within your ministry.
Luke 8:1-3 provides a great example of what supporting the work of God looks like. It shows how
some women who were actively supporting the work of God, accompanied Jesus and his disciples to
provide help when it was needed. They used whatever resources they had to accomplish this. A true
believer cannot just passively attend church without getting involved in all aspects of their ministry
be it financially or by giving your expertise or time. There is a practical aspect to worship that
christians of today often ignore. This is why there are so many needy and passive “church goers”
with shallow faith instead of “devoted warriors for Christ”, whose worship brings glory to God. Ask
yourself this, are you an asset to your ministry? What contribution are you giving to the
advancement of the work of God.
In conclusion, how you value God is rooted in your ability to believe in Him. True faith will prevent
you from seeing your activeness in church as a loss. This is because the reasoning behind your
actions will fuel your desire to please God. Hebrews 4:2 outlines that the power and effect of the
word of God within you is void without faith. So take a leap of faith today and surrender your life to
the work of God. Deny yourself and receive the fulness of Christ as He comes alive in you as
according to Mark 8:34. Then whatever you do, will be a building block in the Kingdom of God.