March 24
“’If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.’” (John 14:15)
The greatest evidence that we love the Lord is whether or not we are keeping His commandments. How are you doing in that regard? We ought to be regularly examining ourselves in this area and truly desiring to know and evaluate how well we are obeying the Lord, and thus how well we are loving Him.
Rather than wonder whether you are obeying the Lord and keeping His commandments, or worse, assuming that you are when possibly you are not, simply ask. Ask the Lord to show you areas of your life where you are not obedient to His word. Ask earnestly and sincerely, not with a double mindedness, as might be the case if you really don’t want to face the answer honestly. Ask others who know you well if they can think of any scripture verse that you clearly are not obeying. That might be an eye-opener!
If you ask the Lord and you still haven’t gotten a significant issues you need to address, then you are either a very godly person or you are missing something pretty significant. I believe 90 percent or more of us would have quite a list if we carefully compared our lives to the scriptures. For example, Paul says to make the most of your time, for the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). Jesus says that whoever looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery already in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Between the Old and New Testaments, there are many, many commandments and principles of scripture, all of which are fulfilled in the Law of Love and made manifest fully in Lord Jesus.
Obeying the scriptures can be overwhelming, especially if you are like me and can find many verses that you can look at and say, “I don’t do this very well or that very well.” We can’t do it in our own wisdom or with our own strength. The ability to obey the Lord’s commandments are beyond me. But they are not beyond Him. Do we love Him enough to be concerned about obeying His commandments and to be grieved by the ones we fail to do? Or do we make excuses for ourselves and remain content to compare ourselves to others we know who aren’t doing so well in their love and zeal for the Lord either?
Who are you following? Do you need to find more mature, more Christ loving men or women to follow? Who are you hanging out with? Are you allowing people or influences into your life that are subtly cooling your zeal for the Lord? Do you need to find other believers and other influences to spend time with so that you are not pulled away from Him?
Pray for God to bring you under the influence of more faithful, more zealous, more loving men or women so you can imitate their faith. Pray that God would bring to you like-minded and high-minded fellow believers who you can pray with and by whom you may be encouraged to run the race better. Seek to fill your empty times with input from scripture. Choose to listen to a sermon rather than watch a movie. There are really a lot of things we can be doing to help us rekindle a zealous love for the Lord and be influenced by people who are going that same direction. Take advantage of these resources, and seek the Lord to bring more and more people into your life that love Him above all else.