Last week we talked about God’s perfect love for each of us. We are in fact perfectly loved by our Creator! We were encouraged by the fact that God knows us even better than we know ourselves and that God loves us perfectly as we are even with all of our imperfections and our sinful nature. We were also encouraged with the reminder that when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior we become children of God! (John 1:12) As children of God we have Jesus living in our inner being and we have peace with God. Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (NIV) Now we know that we are perfectly loved by God but what does love for God look like? 1 John 5:3-5 tells us that “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (NIV) As we are taught in 1 John, we love God by keeping his commands. God gives us His commands in His Word, The Holy Bible. Even if we have never spent a moment of time in God’s Word we still understand right from wrong and we are without excuse. We are not to sin. James 4:17 says that “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. (NIV) If we want to learn about how to live our lives to glorify God then we must spend time in God’s Word. God instructs us in His Word. The very act of spending time in God’s Word is glorifying to Him. In order to live according to God’s Word we must know His Word.
Now we know that no one is perfect and we all sin. Thankfully, we have our Savior Jesus Christ who died on the cross to save us from our sins and He rose to life again! Only in Jesus can we be set free from sin and death for all of eternity and have eternal life in Him. 1 John 3:23 says “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. (NIV) In order to have peace with God we must accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and when we do so, we are forgiven for all of our past, present, and future sins! When we have our Savior Jesus living in us, then we are forgiven even when we do sin. For Jesus paid the full price for our sins once and for all. So let us not get discouraged when we do sin, for we have our Savior Jesus living in us and in Him our sins will never be counted against us. If you are struggling with sin, pray to God and ask Him for forgiveness and believe that you are forgiven. Ask God to keep you from sinning and to make you live your life to glorify Him and to do His will. As Psalm 119:133 says “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. (NIV) Remember to believe that you have what you are asking for in prayer and it will be yours. 1 John 1:9 tells us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (NIV) God is faithful even when we are not! God knows exactly what you need even before you do. God will always bless you with exactly what you need. Remember, it is God who works in you to do His will and it is God who makes you live to glorify Him.
So let us not be discouraged! As we just learned in 1 John, God’s commands are not burdensome for us! God’s commands are not burdensome because, in Jesus, we have overcome sin and the world! Philippians 2:13 says “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (NIV) God makes us keep His commands and He makes us live our lives to glorify Him and do His will. All the good in us is Christ in us! This is such an incredible blessing! We can be encouraged knowing that the good in us will never fail, for the good in us is Christ in us! Mark 12:30 instructs us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ NIV) Now remember we do this by keeping God’s commands.
So now, we have been encouraged with the fact that God loves each of us perfectly! We have been taught that love for God is keeping his commands. In order to keep God’s commands, we must know what His commands are. God teaches us His commands through His Word. We must be faithful in reading God’s Word and we must do what His Word instructs us to do. The more time we spend reading and studying God’s Word the more we know His Word. When we know what God’s Word says we can reference His Word at any time! We can reference God’s Word and be reminded of His commands and the blessings to which He has called us! We are filled with joy that overflows when we are reminded of the endless eternal blessings to which God has called us! As children of God, we have Jesus living in us and He makes us keep God’s commands! We do have a sinful nature and we do sin, but we also have our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God interceding for us! (Romans 8:34) We must not get discouraged in our efforts to live a life that glorifies God! Always remember that it is God who works in you to do His will. (Philippians 2:13) God is faithful even when we are not! Our God is full of mercy and grace and richly blesses us with both even though we don’t deserve either! God is always right here with us and we can pray to Him at any moment in the day or night. As God’s dearly loved children, we get to freely come before God and we get to approach His throne of grace with confidence, for we are forgiven for every one of our sins! (Ephesians 3:12) Since we are blessed with this incredible blessing, let us be faithful in coming before the Lord our God in prayer. Ask God to make you faithful in living to glorify Him and He will do so! Praise God! For we are eternally and perfectly loved by our God! Now let us be faithful in loving the Lord our God, as we are commanded, by keeping His commands and living to glorify Him! There is never any reason to be discouraged and there is nothing to fear! For we bear on our bodies the marks of Jesus and we are children of the one and only God of all creation! Rejoice in the Lord and press on enjoying eternal peace, hope, and joy in our Savior Jesus!
Comentarios