I once was a rebel.
Stubborn.
Hard-headed.
Disobedient.
One of the first things God began transforming after I was gifted with salvation was my rebellious nature. God truly had His work cut out for Him. After years of willful disobedience, through God’s grace, I committed to obeying and serving Him.
After salvation, a believer’s life has a new trajectory directed toward God. Obedience to God is the hallmark of a renewed holy life.
Our obedience demonstrates to people to whom our allegiance belongs. When we choose God before our own self-serving desires, we demonstrate that we love Him above all else, even ourselves.
Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep His commandments. The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. --1 John 2:3-4
As a new believer, I was fully committed to obeying God. I made it my passion. My mission. However, I slowly began treating obedience as my means of obtaining God’s approval and winning His favor.
When I mistreated a coworker or spoke negatively about someone, I felt tremendous guilt. I immediately thought I was at risk of losing God’s love. Somehow, I shifted from obeying God out of love to serving and obeying Him out of fear and legalistic obligation.
For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down…--1 John 5:3
It is important to pay attention to the order of the words in 1 John 5. God’s love comes first, then our obedience follows.
Our obedience is not what produces faith and love. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us our saving faith is a gift from God. 1 John 4:19 tells us the only reason we love God is because He first loved us.
Therefore, our obedience should always be the result of God’s love, not a transaction we make in order to obtain His love.
Don’t get me wrong. Obedience to God’s Word and His commands are extremely important. As believers we are called to build our lives upon God’s Word as our firm foundation. We rely on the Bible for wisdom, knowledge, and peace. It is our source of security and assurance of our identity.
If we truly love God, we will seek to know Him, know His Word, and keep His commands. When our faith is genuine, obedience will be the outcome.
But what happens when we fail God?
Thankfully, God knew from the beginning of time we would fail Him. That is why God has given us His Son, Jesus. Jesus did what we could not. Jesus remained perfectly and completely obedient to the authority of God, even to the cross.
Because Jesus lives within believers, God sees us as He sees Jesus: perfectly righteous; holy; beloved daughters. Therefore, we are free to serve and obey God with all of our hearts with reckless abandon, knowing He loves us no matter what.
But whoever obeys His word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked. --1 John 2:5-6
When we disobey God and His Word, we can run boldly, unashamed, and throw ourselves upon God’s throne of grace. We honestly confess our struggle to obey Him. We pour our hearts out to Him earnestly and humbly. After humble repentance and confession, we trust God. We follow Him once again, knowing we are loved, knowing God has already poured upon us His mercy and forgiveness, knowing we are forgiven, restored, and renewed.
As I grew in my Christian walk, my entire world was changed when I began to recognize God’s love is incomprehensible and inexhaustible that even when I did not obey Him, He loved me just the same. This merciful love compelled me to choose to follow Him, serve Him, and obey Him even when I knew I did not have to. Obedience to God became my act of worship for His great love for me.
When we fail God, we remember our salvation was never based on our behavior or our level of obedience. We remember our right-standing with God is fixed and unchanging. We remember we have the fullness of God’s love and His delight.
We remember His love, and follow Him obediently again and again and again.
Where might you need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in your life in order to become more disciplined and obedient to God? How can we pray for you?
Peace and grace to you,
Terria
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Week 1 - Wednesday
Obedient Love
August 19, 2020
Week 4 - Friday
September 11, 2020 • Sara
I grew up in a time and a place where WWJD? ("What would Jesus do?") bracelets were popular. There were so many of them in my day it spawned parodies and became almost cliche. But, at the heart of it, it’s a great question to ask in any situation. What would Jesus do? Would He have reached across a political aisle to love people with different opinions? Indeed. Would He have welcomed broken people and shown grace without watering down the God breathed truth of Scripture? Of course. But how do we actually live like Jesus? Third John 11 says, “Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God.” It sounds relatively easy on the surface, but the world has a funny way of blurring boundaries. What’s superficially nice is not necessarily kind. What initially seems appropriate may be popularity or political correctness in disguise. Thankfully (and as usual), Scripture helps us. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.” Galatians 5:22-23 also gives instruction on where we can focus our energy and what virtues the Holy Spirit can cultivate in our lives. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” We can’t imitate God’s power, His omnipotence, or His eternal presence, but we have the perfect example of goodness - and godliness - in Jesus. C.S. Lewis wrote about this beautifully in his work The Four Loves, saying, “our imitation of God in this life — that is, our willed imitation as distinct from any of the likenesses which He has impressed upon our natures or states — must be an imitation of God incarnate: our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions. For this, so strangely unlike anything we can attribute to the Divine life in itself, is apparently not only like, but is, the Divine life operating under human conditions.” We won’t ever be perfect, but we should fight and pray and practice to be His true apprentice. May the world see a glimpse of the goodness of our living God and of the hope of Heaven in our lives. -Sara
Week 4 - Thursday
September 10, 2020
Week 4 - Wednesday
September 9, 2020 • Brittany
“I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are living according to truth.” 3 John 4 A few years ago, a college mentor reached out to me after having not been in contact for years. We had been incredibly close during my undergraduate experience, but life happened. I moved away, got married, had a family, and after over a decade of living in different states - aside from a Christmas card and an occasional email - we no longer talked regularly. Every couple of years we’d catch up on all the big happenings in our life, and I’d find myself again soaking up her wisdom. One day, after one of our catch-up sessions, I opened up an email from her and saw these life-giving words, “I am so proud of the way you’re choosing to live your life.” Tears brimmed my eyes and spilled over onto my cheeks as those words, rich with the love of a mentor, spoke life over me. She viewed her guidance, her discipleship, and sacrifice of time and resources as an investment of love into my life. And because of her love of the Lord and love for me, all these years later I am still walking with the Lord (imperfectly) but striving to live my life in a way that is according to truth. I love how Jesus’s words in the Great Commission tell us that, as we go, we’re called to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I [our heavenly Father] have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). Third John 4 shows us the beauty that comes from obeying the Great Commission: “I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are living according to truth.” There is a pure joy in knowing your work for the kingdom has produced good fruit. There is deep satisfaction knowing the work we’re doing today, the love we’re sharing with others, will one day take root and grow something faithful and true. Because isn’t that the way of the disciple? To know the deep riches of God’s love, to have been shown and taught it during our early years of our faith, to allow it to transform our lives into something beautiful – and then to one day be the one who takes the hand of a younger person in their faith and help them navigate the joys and heartaches of this life? To be a disciple of Jesus is to also be a disciple maker – and that is a good and life-giving calling, worthy of our utmost attention. Years later, I am now modeling the relationship I had with my mentor. Over cups of coffee and open Bibles, I meet with college girls in my church. We talk about life, sin, relationships, career choices – you name it! Sometimes we talk specifically about Scripture, other times we share about what’s going on with our lives. And I often walk away praying, “Father, keep her close to you. Let these moments not return void. Help her see your great love for her and allow it to change her life forever.” I don’t yet have the satisfaction of seeing the fruit God grows in their life, but what I do know is this: the great love God has called us to is one I can’t keep to myself. And I am confident in this, the one who began a good work in them, will complete it (Philippians 1:6). And I look forward to the day where I can send them an email and say, “I am so proud of the way you’re choosing to live your life” -Brittany