Do You Love Me?
Today's Verse:
If ye love me, keep my commandments. ~John 14:15
Do you love the Lord? Many times, we pray something like this: “Lord, we love you…” However, do we really love the Lord? Do we love the Lord conditioned upon what He does for us, or conditioned upon what we are supposed to be doing for Him? How do we communicate that we love the Lord? This morning, we want to look at the acid test of true discipleship. We are looking at what it means to love the Lord.
We see the priority.
The greatest commandment requires us to love the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, all our desire, and all our being. Simply said, we are to love the Lord exclusively and unconditionally. There are to be no interferences or idols in our life that compete for our love for God. In loving the Lord, everything we do and say should reflect without any doubt that we love Him. Do your priorities reflect that you love the Lord 100%?
We see the practice.
Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Keeping the commandments of the Lord is complete obedience. It is doing everything He demands of us. It is not living a life of sin. How can we say we love the Lord and have bitterness, resentment, animosity, or a spirit of unforgiveness towards another person? How can we say we love the Lord but are disobedient to our parents? How can we say we love the Lord but do little to nothing in sharing His love with others through a gospel witness? You see, loving God requires that we keep His commandments. The commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes. We should rejoice when we read a commandment of the Lord. We should give special attention to the mandates of the Lord.
We see the proof.
There are the answers to our prayers. “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (I John 3:22). What a powerful prayer warrior who understands keeping God’s commandments are necessary in order to see his prayers answered. There is the Spirit’s fullness. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). There are the greater works we can accomplish. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father,” (John 14:12). When we love someone we do those things that are pleasing to them. In the same way, God does great and mighty things for and in us because we love him.
We see the proactiveness.
Loving God is always proactive, seldom reactive. We look for ways to love God. We know what His commandments are and make no bones about keeping them. Proactive people do things without being asked. They exceed the expectations of the ones they desire to please.
Do you love the Lord? He loves you! Let’s keep His commandments!
Have an obedient God Morning!
Bible Reading Schedule: Joshua 1-4