1 John 3_22
November 16
Happy Friday Everyone,
The scripture for today is 1 John 3:22
1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
That we keep His commandments is clearly important to God. And that which is important to God should also be important to us. But how can we ensure that we are always living lives that honor God?
All of the commandments are summed up in this: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law of God is condensed into these two precepts. The moral law of God is divided into these two categories. The first four commandments direct our love for God and the last six direct our love for our fellowman. The commandments of God are an expression of the character of God, which is love. Keeping those commandments requires that we surrender to His love so that the life of Christ can be lived through us. It is impossible to keep them otherwise. It is only as we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30) that we have the love-power to live out His life in the face of the pressures of the world around us.
When God becomes our most important objective and the desire to have His life expressed through us is our greatest passion, His love does a work within our hearts that we simply cannot explain. We become new creations and we bear no spiritual resemblance to our previous existence. We who were caterpillars have become butterflies; we have become the children of God. And, as His children, we bear the resemblance of the One who fathered us. We keep His commandments, not from a position of legalistic rule following, we keep His commandments because He lives in us and doing so is the clearest expression of our love for Him and our likeness of Him. It is His character that we want to project. We want to think, speak, and behave like Jesus. He is our example and His life is a God honoring life. May we live with the same expression of love for God and by so doing we will "always do those things that please Him." John 8:29
God bless you as you continue in His service.
Tim