How do we keep the main thing the main thing?

Live in Awareness of His Presence

Do you ever wonder what matters most?

I remember a sermon I heard in high school that quoted Stephen Covey, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” The point of the quote is to keep the main thing at the center of your life; to not be distracted by all of the other things going on around you.

Do you ever get jolted awake by a bad dream? I mean the kind of bad dream where you wake up sweating, freaked out, even crying, maybe? And it was all too real. You found out your loved one was gone. No more time. The flood of memories. The loss. The regret.

What would we regret not doing or being if we lost the ones we love? How much of our time is wasted doing things that are just busy-work but not the main thing of life? Too often we are consumed with the tyranny of the urgent, and we neglect the most important. Or, frankly, we are obsessed with ourselves and our own happiness, and we are blind to God’s leading and the needs of others.

When we fill our time with our own pursuits and pleasures, we leave no room for God to work.

Anyone can do tasks. Relationships cannot be replaced. If the main thing is to LOVE GOD and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, then how should life play out? We need some sort of ‘main thing’ filter that helps us decide what is worthy of our time. Imagine a spaghetti strainer that keeps in the noodles (main thing) but allows all the water to flow past (all the extra stuff in life that you don’t need to keep). But God already thought of that.

The Holy Spirit is our ‘main thing’ filter.

He is ever-present to remind us of the main thing, if we would only listen. Awareness is our problem. Our prayer ought to be that of the Jesus Culture mantra, “Let us become more aware of Your Presence, Let us experience the Glory of Your Goodness… Your Glory God is what our hearts long for, To be overcome by Your Presence Lord.” When we are consumed with God and His glory, we will filter all of our life through that paradigm. When we walk through our days, aware of His presence, we make different decisions then when we walk unaware. When we ‘tune in,’ we see more of the things that God sees, and feel more of the things that God feels. We glimpse His heart. And we alter our steps accordingly.

When we abide in God’s presence, we are more likely to focus on what matters. We have a better chance of keeping the main thing the main thing. We can hope that we won’t have regrets, when it’s time for us to die, or the time comes when lose a loved one.

When it all comes down to it, What matters most? Faith expressing itself in love.

Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Having faith is not the be all and end all of life. Faith must be lived out in love. If we keep God at the center of our lives, and live in awareness of His presence, we will likely live well.

Enjoy the song