Why Only One Question Really Matters

Susan is a busy mom. She has three kids all under the age of 10. She tries to manage her home, but without a husband she often falls behind on the bills and basic home maintenance. She lives very far from any relatives, and has considered moving because of this. But it is just too expensive to move right now. She attends church, but she often misses what's going on while she is so busy with her kids. Her evenings are exhausting, and she has less than an hour to herself after the kids are in bed.

Then the phone rings, and it's the test results from the doctor. She has cancer.

In our daily lives we can name several priorities that capture our attention. A scientific study found that we become more fatigued and less productive when faced with a number of choices or priorities. How do we make sense of our lives when there is so much to be concerned about?

The solution is simple, but hard to implement when faced with so many decisions everyday. The solution is that we need to ask the right questions to know what's important. In fact, few people really do this. Usually, with the world's help, people either ask the wrong questions or don't ask anything at all. But this is critical. How are we to know what is priority if we don't? And only one question really matters.

The only question that really matters is this: What does God want me to do? This is the most important question. The question helps us make the right choices, prioritize what is truly important, and leads us to transformation that counts. After all, God created us for a reason. And what is more important than fulfilling that reason?

Why is this the most important question?

This question is the most important because we will all die some day. We will have to all settle the matter of God's existence, God's character, and God's desire for us sooner or later. We must deal with our ultimate destiny. Where is this all headed? Is death the end or the beginning of something? And last, if we accept God's existence and character, we must deal with our destiny with a final judgment, where we stand before God without pretense or protection and give account to him who made us.

Another reason this is the most important question is that we can't control everything. Life happens. Sometimes we can be on top of the world, and suddenly it crashes all around us. How do we prepare? There is One who knows ahead of time what is going to happen, and how we can be prepared to withstand difficult times. God made us, and knows what we need. And he wants us to make it through, as well as to be transformed into something wonderful. We need to know what he would have us do in tough times, because he not only knows what's best for us, but he is determined to mold us into what he designed us to be. After all, it's God who matters.

This question is also important because we have limits. We can't do everything. We have limited time. We have limited resources. We have limited abilities, skills, talents, and gifts. We must use what we have wisely. But who determines what is wise? God. Again, he made us and he has a plan for us and for this whole world. Doesn't it make sense to live our lives to please him?

The last reason this question is the most important is that we all have pressures. We have competing priorities, family obligations, societal expectations, expectations from our friends and acquaintances, and even our own expectations. We have dreams that are yet fulfilled and obligations we need to keep. We have failures we wish we never had. We have opportunities we wish we never missed. How do we put all these in their proper perspective? Let God set the priorities. Then focus our lives to please him. Then whatever doesn't get done, doesn't get done. Whoever doesn't get pleased, doesn't get pleased. But on that day, when you or I see him for who he is, he will say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" What God thinks matters the most.

For Susan, this meant giving her worries and concerns to God in prayer. She joined a group of godly women who could help her with her kids. She needed to prioritize her time to allow for space for herself and her God. And even if the kids wanted her, she determined to maintain her commitment to the Lord, and it paid off in becoming a better mom for her kids. She has peace, because the maker of her soul is Lord in her life.