Are you prone to compromise?  John 14.18-24                                      Click to read: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2014:18-24&version=WE&interface=print        

Focus – v. 23: Jesus said to him, “If you love me, you will obey me”…

Greetings.

Sinner … that’s me.  There … I said it.  I said it because it is the truth.  It is less about what I do, than who I am.  And though I am not given to what folks often think of as the ‘big sins’, I am a sinner.  I guess I am prone to compromise God’s call for me to ‘be holy, even as he is holy.’  Sometimes, God is leading me in one direction—away from what may lead to compromise, and I don’t want to go.  Because I think, ‘what’s the big deal?’  Guess I cut myself slack.  But if God impresses something on my heart, (as only the Holy Spirit can do), and I choose to go my own way, then I have chosen to be disobedient.  Disobedience is sin.

Just before Jesus departs the Upper Room with the disciples, he begins to describe the Holy Spirit—that after he goes to the Father, he [the Holy Spirit] will be with them, and soon, in them.  And then Jesus goes on to talk about love . . . “He who knows the things I tell him to do and does them, really loves me . . . If you love me, you will obey me.”  Here’s a disturbing thought:  in light of my confession, what does compromise say about how I really feel toward Jesus?  “The person who does not love me does not obey me.”  Oh……..

Here’s the thing:  Love translates to obedience.  Obedience to God, which includes obedience to what the Spirit is leading me to do, or stay away from.  I am coming to believe that Obedience is the truest expression of our love for God.  Obedience also demonstrates our trust in God.  If I truly trust God, I will want to live a life in obedience to him--in thought, word and deed.  If I truly love God, I will want to go the other way from compromise, looking to stay away from ‘the line’ rather than dancing all the way up to it, you see?

George MacDonald was a Scottish poet, preacher, novelist who boiled all of life's truth into a simple two-step process: realizing who God is, then obeying Him. "True faith, true belief, is not possible where there is not a daily doing of the things He says. They are what make faith take root and spring to life... obedience is not perfection, but making an effort."  Realize who God is, then obey him. 

Christine