GOD. Elohim. Yahweh. Jehovah Jireh. Whatever you choose to call Him, His identity remains the same. He is, first and foremost, holy. He is perfect, pure, merciful. He is love. He is gracious beyond measure and He loves to poor out His blessings on those who love Him, trust Him, and obey Him.
But why? Why is it so important to love, trust, and obey?
If you stop and think about it, it's rather difficult (read: impossible) to have one without the other. Complete obedience arises out of a complete trust. If a stranger walked up and gave you a list of random commandments, a list that told you to go to a certain place and do a certain thing, would you follow them? No, of course not. Why? Because you don't know them. You can't trust them. How do you know that they aren't waiting to ambush and rob you once you reached your destination?
Now if a loved one called and asked you to meet them in a certain location, would you not go? Of course you would. You trust them enough to know they wouldn't set you up to be beaten and robbed. And how do you know this? Well, the truth is you don't know for sure. But you trust them enough to go anyways.
As you can see, complete obedience comes from complete trust. And where does this trust come from? You guessed it: love.
Now love is a tricky thing. Human love is no good. It's highly conditional, incomplete, and often comes with strings attached. Nope. Human love simply won't do. The kind of love we need can only come from one source: GOD.
And how do we get this love? Simple. Ask. Ask and you will receive; but you will only receive if you believe you will receive. Once you have received the gift of GOD's love, the difference will be stark. GOD's love is for everybody -- those who hate you back as well as those who love you back. It is written that GOD makes the sun shine on all; both the wicked and the righteous. In the same sense, GOD's love is for everybody -- the wicked and the righteous.
Once we ask for and receive this wondrous love GOD has for us, trust will naturally follow. And, as you may have guessed, from this outpouring of trust, obedience will come. The only thing we must do is ask. Once we ask, we must believe. And once we believe, we must make the decision to follow. We must make the decision to obey.
But why? Why is it so important to love, trust, and obey?
If you stop and think about it, it's rather difficult (read: impossible) to have one without the other. Complete obedience arises out of a complete trust. If a stranger walked up and gave you a list of random commandments, a list that told you to go to a certain place and do a certain thing, would you follow them? No, of course not. Why? Because you don't know them. You can't trust them. How do you know that they aren't waiting to ambush and rob you once you reached your destination?
Now if a loved one called and asked you to meet them in a certain location, would you not go? Of course you would. You trust them enough to know they wouldn't set you up to be beaten and robbed. And how do you know this? Well, the truth is you don't know for sure. But you trust them enough to go anyways.
As you can see, complete obedience comes from complete trust. And where does this trust come from? You guessed it: love.
Now love is a tricky thing. Human love is no good. It's highly conditional, incomplete, and often comes with strings attached. Nope. Human love simply won't do. The kind of love we need can only come from one source: GOD.
And how do we get this love? Simple. Ask. Ask and you will receive; but you will only receive if you believe you will receive. Once you have received the gift of GOD's love, the difference will be stark. GOD's love is for everybody -- those who hate you back as well as those who love you back. It is written that GOD makes the sun shine on all; both the wicked and the righteous. In the same sense, GOD's love is for everybody -- the wicked and the righteous.
Once we ask for and receive this wondrous love GOD has for us, trust will naturally follow. And, as you may have guessed, from this outpouring of trust, obedience will come. The only thing we must do is ask. Once we ask, we must believe. And once we believe, we must make the decision to follow. We must make the decision to obey.
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