“Whoever has my
commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be
loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:21
If we want to know Jesus more we must hold on to His commands.
We must treasure His words. We must build our life on the rock of His word. And
His promise is to manifest Himself to us.
But this is not a ‘grit-your-teeth-and-bear-it’ type of
obedience. When we have truly come to know Christ’s love for us, we treasure Him. We treasure His word. “Obey” is no longer a dirty four letter word, as
my seminary professor liked to joke, but rather the JOY of our hearts.
So, how do Christ and His commands become the joy of our
hearts? It starts with experiencing
the gospel personally. When God opens our eyes to see His supreme worth and His
love in sending His Son to die a painful death in our place, our lives change
forever. Upon faith in Christ’s blood shed for our sins and His resurrection
from the dead, we receive the Holy Spirit. It is HE that gives us this JOY and
holy desire to live out Christ’s commands. THE LOVE OF GOD poured into our
hearts compels us (see Romans 5:5 & 2 Cor 5:16).
This is how Jesus can see who truly loves Him. Do we keep His
commandments joyfully? The only way for this to be a true reality is for the
Holy Spirit to write this in our hearts. We will not obey perfectly, but there will
be a desire to honor God, to live for Him and to love Him. And the Holy Spirit will give us power to walk
in His ways so that we become more and more like Jesus.
I remember when God opened my eyes to the beautiful reality
of the gospel. I remember weeping as I reflected on these lyrics during a
church service: ‘I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross’.
He changed me. I finally understood
the love God had FOR ME. The
Holy Spirit, the comforter, came to reside in me upon faith and I became a
different person. The desires of my heart changed: instead of pursuing my own
agenda, I wanted to pursue God. Instead of living for my own glory, I desired
to live for God’s glory. Instead of obeying my every whim, I wanted to obey Christ.
I wanted to know Him.
Obedience to Christ and His commands are a lifelong journey.
Repentance and faith is not a one-time event, but an EVERY DAY EVENT. As we turn
from sin and turn to Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us, we will
grow to know a closeness with Christ that we could have never imagined. You
see, obedience does not drain our relationship with the Lord or put a damper on
experiencing His love. It is in this faith walk of repentance and obedience
where we will come to know the Lord
and He will manifest Himself more and more to us.
So this is my prayer…That you may soak in the gospel and
come to know God’s deep and personal love for you. There is no greater
motivation than this. There is no greater power than this. Holy Spirit, open
our eyes to this love and empower us to walk in Christ’s commands joyfully.
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