Loving God and Obeying God Go Hand and Hand:

Recently where I work we were given these ugly shirts and told we had to wear them.   I mean these shirts were ugly no one wanted to obey the rule that we had to wear them.  But isn’t this really how we feel about most rules or being told what we must do, for some reason it doesn’t always set well with us.  I don’t know if it’s because as people we just don’t like being bossed around or what it is about being given rules that we don’t like about it.  Yet we live by rules all the time and don’t even realize it.  Let us take those that are married, within your marriage I can guarantee that you have all kinds of rules and don’t even realize it.  When you were first married you made all kinds of changes and never complained.  Within the first couple of months of being married I got in trouble.   I went golfing after work, knowing that Autumn got off work after I did I didn’t call to tell her that I went.  She got home before I finished my game and she called me frantic and worried, she thought I had been in accident on my way home from work.  Since then if I’m going to do something after work I let her know.  I don’t care about this, it doesn’t bother me that I have to check in with my wife.  Why is that?  Because I love her so it comes easy.

We read in 1^st John 5:1-5 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.  We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments.  Loving God means keeping his commandments, and really, that isn’t difficult.  For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory.  And the ones who win this battle against the world are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”  I underlined the part about Loving God, and keeping His commandments, because I hear so many people say I believe you can live however you want as long as you love God.  But here we see it says if you love God you are not only going to follow His commandants but it says it’s not that hard.  Let us just real quickly review the first two commandants because once we see them I think it could change how you think about a lot things in life.  Here is what Christ tells us about the first two commandants; ““The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. ³⁰ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’^* ³¹ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”(Mark  12:27)

Take note that how Christ tells us the most important ones are love God with all you heart mind and soul, and also love you neighbor.  It sounds like God is telling us that the commandants are important also sounds like He telling us that love is really life changing.  Maybe you are not really ready to start tackling the second commandant yet, so lets us take the first step and say I really do want to love God I don’t want a fake relationship with Him but a real one.  Start by praying to Him.  It’s simple, start with this one.  “God I know you are God, you created all things.  The powers of this world must one day answer to You.  I desire to come and have a loving relationship with you.  Help me, teach me, show me how to do that.  Thank you so much for loving me God, I don’t deserve but your grace is great and you love is amazing.  Amen”

Which Path To Take?

Have you ever been on diet?  I know lots of people that go on and off of diets, I know people that are on weight watchers that decide that certain foods don’t go towards their daily count, such as their morning coffee with flavored creamer.  We all know that person that says they are on a diet and that they are going to be eating healthy getting rid of the junk food in their lives.  Then we see them eating a cookie and say I thought you were going on a diet?  They respond “I am on a diet but cookies are my list of things I let myself eat.”  Then weeks later they are complying about not losing weight.  Why is that?  Because they made a decision that instead of following the rules of the diet, they wanted to continue to eat what everyone else was eating.  The thing is we all have to make decisions, some of them are small others big, we can decide to follow the crowd to do what everyone else is doing which is the easy way to live or we can decide to go down a path that is not so easy ,one that is  not followed very often.  It is easy to go with the crowd, to just say well everyone else does that so it’s no big deal.  Once we decide to go against the grin then people look at us funny and say things like, you’re crazy, I wouldn’t do that it is too hard.  I worked with a woman who decided it was time to lose weight and get in shape.  A great thing to do, she watched what she ate and started an exercise routine.  When we would have cookies or cake at work people would tell her, you can have one piece that won’t kill you.  She would always refuse to give in and eat any sweets, it was a hard thing to do.  The easy thing would have been to eat the sweets but she knew that would hinder what she wanted to do. “Christ tells us this, You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.”(Mt 7:13-14)

We who serve Christ have to make decisions every day, some are simple one others are not so simple.  Some of us who have been following Christ and have a deep relationship with Christ have already made many hard decisions others are still making them, let us take a look at young man who was taken prisoner and given a new name.  His name was Daniel as a young man he was taken captive by the Babylonian Government taken from His home country to Babylon because he was chosen to serve the King, part of the deal about being chosen was that they were to eat of the finest food and wine.  But this was not ok with Daniel and His friends for they realized that by eating of this food this would displease God. I am sure that there were those around them that said shout up and eat the food and drink the wine, God will understand.  But this was not a sufficient answer for Daniel and His friends.  So he went and talked with the Guard over them.  “But he was alarmed by Daniel’s suggestion. “My lord the king has ordered that you eat this food and wine,” he said. “If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded for neglecting my duties.”(Daniel 1:10)   That would be enough for most to say, “oh ok I don’t want to see you lose your head, sorry I brought it up.”  But not Daniel he continued the conversation and suggested that they go ahead and do a little test.  “Test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said.  “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s rich food. Then you can decide whether or not to let us continue eating our diet.” So the attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days.”(Daniel 1:12-14)  

You know what after the ten days, Daniel and His friends looked great, in fact we are told, “looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king”(Dn 1:15)  Daniel choose to do the hard thing to hold what he had been taught about God, as we read through the book of Daniel we see other times Daniel had to make tough decisions and do the right thing.  To know that God would be with him, that God would take care of Him no matter what.  That by doing the hard thing he would grow deeper in his relationship with God. 

I know we all live busy lives, we all have to do things that are hard, but it is doing the hard things that are going to define our lives in God, and our lives in general.  If we want to live a life that is deep and have a meaningful relationship we God we have decide to do the hard things that others may call us crazy for doing.  In his article 19 Hard Things You Need To Do Be Successful Dan Waldschmidt  makes this statement; “You have to do the hard things. The things that no one else is doing. The things that scare you. The things that make you wonder how much longer you can hold on. Those are the things that define you. Those are the things that make the difference between living a life of mediocrity or outrageous success.”  I ask you this one question what is the one hard thing you have to do to bring your relationship closer to God.  What do you have to give up to be able draw close to God?  What is your road less taken, that God is calling you to take?