April 17
“If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
We touched on how important obedience to the Lord is when we discussed Rebuilding Principles five and seven: Rekindle a zealous love for the Lord and Regain the fullness of the Spirit. If we love the Lord, we will keep His commandments. If we are filled with the Spirit, we will be obeying His voice. These go hand in hand and are inseparable. Our motivation to obey comes from our love, and the strength to obey comes from the Holy Spirit.
Love obeys the Spirit’s leading. What is more, we need to learn to love to obey the Spirit’s leading. It is fun, really, to obey His voice, do the hard things, ask His help to get them done, and see difficult and unpleasant tasks get accomplished one by one. A very different kind of “fun” is one centered on self-gratification and self-indulgence; that kind of “fun” is usually wasteful, often leads us to sin, and usually always is regretted after the fact. Obeying the Lord’s voice and doing His will, on the other hand, although more difficult, results in a lasting joy and peace. It results in a deeper satisfaction and a true sense of accomplishment. It results in real progress on the things that hang over our heads or are burdensome to us. Instead of regretting how we spent our time, knowing we can never get it back, it results in a thankfulness and gratitude for having used our time wisely and accomplished something.
How can we develop a stronger desire and better habits for this kind of obedience and diligence? It is more work, and it is easier to just coast and get by with the minimum. It is more “fun” in a fleshly sense to indulge the flesh, to spend time entertaining ourselves with movies or news or things that catch our attention on the internet or evil things that ensnare us. And today, more and more, people are getting sucked into binge watching of programs or other internet time wasters, and as a result we are getting less sleep. Less sleep means less rest, less patience, less creativity, less awareness, less presence, shorter temper, poor choices, poorer health, and ultimately, more sin.
Recommitting ourselves to full obedience and service to God means saying no to those things. It means disciplining our bodies and making them our slaves. It involves converting pastimes into prayer times. It involves getting to bed early so we can get up early to spend time with God. It involves spending time in the scriptures instead of spending time online. It means focusing on the things above, not on the things that are on earth (Colossians 3:1-4). For many of us, it involves a complete reorientation of our lives from self-indulgence to self-denial, from wastefulness to purposefulness.
Isn’t that what it boils down to, what is your purpose in life? Where are you headed? What do you want the Lord to say to you in that day when all your works and words will be judged? Did you know that all your works will be judged? How much fruit are you producing? What is your goal in life? What is the greatest accomplishment you can imagine yourself accomplishing?
Take time to really think these questions through. Write down your life goals and what you want the Lord to think of you when you stand before Him. And don’t shoot low, aim high. Set high goals for yourself. Purpose to make a difference, a big difference, for His kingdom.