John 14:15

Well the most hectic, I mean joyful, time of the year is upon us.  I'm officially behind on blog posting.  The Thanksgiving leftovers have been purged from my refrigerator and there is an 8 foot twinkling, glittery, pine scented symbol of the season in my living room.  Company has come and gone and I'm finally getting back into my everyday routine.  I've consumed 5 pieces of Christmas candy and 1 large mug of coffee, so let's talk about this scripture.  I had to laugh because the last blog post ended up centering around obedience, so when I got the next card out, and it was John 14:15, I just smiled and shook my head.

If you love me, obey my commandments.  John 14:15

Let's be honest, obedience is hard.  Ok, it's not always hard, it really just depends on the situation.  As a mother of 4, this is a topic that is discussed at length rather frequently in my home.   I guess I hadn't considered that perhaps my children should obey me because they love me.  Mostly I think they should obey me because I'm in authority over them.  Does Jesus want us to obey out of love or out of the authority that He has over us?  In honestly sitting here searching my heart right now, rarely do I obey out of love.  Most times I'm motivated by guilt, fear, or a plain ol' sense of duty.  Not love.  When Jesus tells the disciples and us to obey his commandments he's talking about all of the

instructions that He has given us in the Gospels and in the rest of the New Testament.  Let's find some examples.   Wow, I just googled (don't you just love google?) New Testament commandments.  One website says there are 1,050 of them.  If you want the website let me know and I'll give you the link.   I'm going to fish out a few that are a struggle for me.

• Bless those who curse you  Matt 5:44
• Cast all your cares upon God 1Peter 5:7
• Think on what is true, lovely, just, pure..... Phil 4:8
• Do not worry about tomorrow Matt 6:25-34
• Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth  Eph 4:29

Ok, this is my short list of things that I struggle to obey in.  I'm a worrier.  I let my mind run away and way over think and over analyze things.  As a people pleaser, I struggle when people "curse me" or don't like me.  I also have trouble controlling my mouth, the things I say, the way I say them and with the color in which I say them.  God is working on me.  Honestly though, I hadn't thought of this as an obedience issue.  I hadn't thought of the obedience issue as a motivation of my heart.  Obeying out of love is foreign to me.  BUT....I want to learn this.  If God is my Father, and He is telling me if I love him then I will obey, He most certainly is telling me this because He loves me and obeying is going to produce something really awesome in my life!  I know some of you are probably reading this and thinking I must be either dumb or really slow.  The answer to that is yes and yes, most of the time.  I shouldn't obey because I feel like I have to, but because I LOVE Jesus.  I do love Jesus.  I just never thought of obedience as an act of love.  THIS IS EXCITING TO ME!

Now that I've thought through this and worked it out in my head and my heart, I want to apply it.  I want to live this out in my walk with Jesus, obeying out of love.  I want to teach this to my children, obeying because they love me, not because I'm the boss of them.  I really think this is a game changer for me!  Where are you struggling to obey?  What things are you doing, or not doing, simply out of duty?  Where you can you add a heart of love to your obedience to your Lord and Savior?  I'll pray you find those spots in your life.