“If you love Me, you will keep My commands.” (John 14:15)
If you have a background of abuse like I do and have fallen victim to a colossal misuse of authority like I have, the thought of obeying anybody’s “commands” may make your skin crawl. This is one of the chief reasons why getting to know Jesus intimately through the pages of Scripture is vital. That’s where we see His character etched in concrete. God cannot be ungodly. Truth cannot tell a lie. Light cannot make you dark. Holiness cannot poke you full of holes. Everything commanded by God commands blessing. It may come sooner. It may come later. But it will come. His way is the way of wholeness, goodness, rightness, and of glad and gleeful reaping. The wording of
For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
We who live on this side of Christ’s cross and resurrection dwell under the New Covenant where divine promises find parallels primarily in spiritual terms, which, incidentally, far surpass anything temporal. Jesus promised that our lives rather than our lands would bear much fruit. He promised that we would have, not just life but life more abundantly. He promised to multiply disciples all over the earth, invading every nation and people group with the gospel before He returns. And He’s chosen to do that primarily through His own followers. What He commands, He blesses. It takes some audacity to believe that in a culture chock-full of cynics, but you’ve got a God-breathed Bible to support it.
Audacious love leads to audacious obedience. And, sooner or later, audacious obedience leads to blessing. Maybe even sooner and later. First Timothy 4:8, says that godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Listen, you can’t live an obedient life and miss an adventure. Following the commands of Christ is not just about behavior. Behavior modification is not an end in itself in the New Testament. Transformation is about knowing the truth and the truth setting you free. If you’ll follow Christ’s commands, you’ll follow Christ straight to your calling and you’ll have developed the strength, grit, and stability along the way to handle it. If you’ll cooperate with Christ and do what He tells you to do in keeping with the words of His mouth and the ways of His heart, you’re going to find out how much room holiness makes for wildness. If the apostles and early followers of Jesus didn’t live wild lives, I’ll unpack my hairdryer from my suitcase, kick my feet up on a couch, and work crossword puzzles.
When you give your heart over to the outrageous occupation of the glorious love of God, He will flabbergast your mind with a living breathing 1 Corinthians 2:9.
What eye did not see and ear did not hear,
and what never entered the human mind –
God prepared this for those who love Him.
Watch Beth this Tuesday and Friday on LIFE TODAY. Excerpted from Audacious by Beth Moore. Copyright ©Elizabeth Moore. Published by B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee. Reprinted and used by permission.
