Had one of the verses from this morning that stuck in my thoughts. It was one of those times where I read the verse and then kind of zoned out of the part of the message for 10 minutes or so as I thought about what it meant. The verse is John 14:15 and it says "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Do you love God? Lots of people claim to love God. I often wonder if we don't love the idea of God more than God. It's pretty simple according to this verse. If you love God then you obey Him. See this is where the simple becomes hard. Mentally I think this is where we say "yeah, but..." and fill in our excuses of why we don't want to obey certain of His commands or why we don't think they make sense. Honestly, God says it is pretty simple - if you love me, you will do what I ask. He doesn't ask us how we would run things, he doesn't say if you feel like it today then obey me, he doesn't say do whatever you want, he asks us to trust that He has our best interest in mind. Imagine a parent asking a toddler how he should do things or telling him to obey today if he feels like it. Doesn't really make much sense, but that is what we want. We want to pick and choose and love God when it is convenient. One of the things I like about the series we are doing on Wednesday nights right now is that we have to wrestle with some of the hard things Jesus said. Commands we don't like or even want to do sometimes. But is comes back to this one statement in my mind - "If you love me, you will obey what I command." So when we choose not to follow His plans, then I think we are clearly stating that we don't truly love God. Sound harsh? Maybe, but I don't think our "yeah, but..." rationale really cuts it. So do you claim to be a Christian? Do you love God? Bottom line then is are you obeying Him? Not difficult to grasp, but are we living it out?
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