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Love Brings Obedience!!!

Obedience to the commands of God comes from our heart. When we begin struggling to obey God, this is a clear indication that our heart has shifted away from Him. Some of us claim: " I love God, but I'm having difficulty obeying Him in certain areas of my life." I would like to say that this is a spiritual impossibility. If I were to ask you, "Do you love God?" You might easily respond, "Yes, I love Him." But, what if I were to ask you, "Are you obeying God?" Would you just as easily and quickly answer, "Yes?" Do you know that in both questions, I have asked you the same question? You see, genuine love for God leads to wholehearted obedience. If we told our spouse that we loved them at certain times but that we struggled to love them at others, our relationship would most likely be in jeopardy. But many of us do this same thing to our Lord. We assume that God is satisfied with occasional love or partial obedience. He is not.

"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he 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.

Obedience without love is legalism. Obedience for its own sake can be nothing more than perfectionism, which leads to pride. Many conscientious Christians seek to cultivate discipline in their lives to be more obedient to Christ. As helpful as spiritual disciplines can be, they can never replace our love for God. Love is the discipline. God looks beyond our godly habits, beyond our moral lifestyle, and beyond our church involvement and focuses His penetrating gaze upon our heart.

Has our worship of Him become empty and routine? Have we lost the motivation to read God's Word? Are we experiencing spiritual lethargy? Is our prayer life reduced to a ritual? Friends, these are symptoms of a heart that has shifted away from God. We need to return to our first love. Love is the greatest motivation for a relationship with God and for serving Him.

May God Richly Bless You Today!! H Trent!

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