10/28/2018
Do you obey the commandments of Jesus? If your answer is yes, and you are working your way through life doing all you can towards this end yet you have not felt Jesus to be alive in your life, then I need to ask you one more question... do you obey Him out of love?
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."”
John 14:21 ESV
Many begin their walk of faith and obedience with the destination of heaven as their goal, but that is not the goal God is pleased with... He desires our love, and heaven is the gift we receive for being faithful in it. If we love Jesus and obey his commandments out of love, He will love us in return, and we will see Him in our life. When a man loves his wife, and she loves him just a strongly, then there is nothing He would not give her. And likewise if a woman loves a man and he loves her back in the same way there is nothing she will deny him. He is made rich in her love, and she is finds safety and warmth in his.
“Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”
John 14:24 ESV
So when we obey the commandments of Jesus, who are we really obeying? We are obeying the Holy Father who speaks through His Son. Sons reflect their father, and daughters are the image of the mother because they learned to live and love at their feet. The Father Loves us when He sees our love for His Son, and as a result He desires to give us good things... heaven being one.
As a father I look at my sons and daughters-in-law not based on their accomplishments, or their beauty... no... instead I judge their goodness by how my child loves them, but even more than that, on how they love my child. Any parent, whose child has married, watches for that look of love on the couple’s faces. This is what makes them good for each other, and will keep them together through thick and thin. Don’t get me wrong; marriage requires much work, but the nails and glue that bind a marriage through life come from a deep and abiding love. Without love there is no hope for the future because eventually, as we grow weary, our human ability to work, and withstand the hardships of life, will fall short. At that moment it doesn’t matter how well fitted together our planks are, the stress is endured by the nails and glue... by our love.
There are those who think that seeking heaven should be our absolute goal, and they use scripture such as this to justify their position...
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33 ESV
But a few verses prior to this one we read the following...
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21 ESV
Our heart leads us to our treasure; it is not our treasure which opens up our heart to love. The greatest gifts that two married people give to one another comes not while they are dating or engaged, nor even in the first weeks of marriage, but rather they come during the years of togetherness that follow. Gifts of love are seldom given as money; the gifts of love that I am speaking of are personal in nature... the gift of an abiding relationship, children, kindness, dedication, faithfulness, sacrifice, long suffering, provision, enduring patience, a belief in one another when the world does not believe, and so many others. These gifts nurture a love and grow it to maturity over the years.
So, eternity in heaven is not the gift we receive when we first believe and begin our life with Christ. No, it is the final gift given when our Love for Jesus has endured all that life has thrown at it, and we have worked, and obeyed in the face of these trials. It is the gift that comes because of love’s steadfastness, and our prosperity in it, despite those things... the hard, and the gentle alike.
“and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:6-7 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the measure of your love that you have placed within each of us, and thank you for your overwhelming mercy and grace that is shown to us through your Son Jesus Christ. Help us Holy Father to love him more each day, and I pray that you will see that love reflected upon our faces, and know it to be faithful and enduring in its nature. We feel the love of Jesus through our obedience to His commandments, and the love we show Him Father, and we desire to abide in that love forever. Give us increase in our faith, and the fruit it bears as our love ripens over a lifetime. You are Glorious Father, and our love for you lives through our marriage to your Son. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who gives us eternity as your gift of love’s endurance and long suffering. Praised be your name before the altar where our love is pledged, and in our lives where it is lived...
“"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Ephesians 5:31-33 ESV
Rich Forbes