Day 1: Because I'm Loved and Because He's Worth It

Learning to be radically obedient to God can seem like a mountain of a job. And, if we're not careful, it can turn into a life of performing tasks instead of walking in intimate friendship with Jesus. Jesus warned us about doing all the good stuff apart from knowing Him (remember the sheep and the goats). However, that doesn't mean we aren't supposed to do the good stuff. This morning I read in Ephesians 2:10 that "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." James speaks of faith going side by side with works. John says that His commandments are not burdensome.

It is to be with joy that I obey Jesus and I believe that comes from putting two things at the forefront of my mind when living a life of obedience. First, I must always be receiving revelation of the love of God toward me. I'm not trying to earn anything by doing things. And, I'm not doing things for Jesus; I'm doing things with Jesus. I'm not trying to earn gold stars for what I do. I need my focus to be on Jesus, His love for me and my love for Him. I can rest in knowing that it is His glory that is at stake, not mine. I think the world needs to see people who know the radical love of God; not just people who claim to believe in Him and try to show off their gifts.

Second, I need to daily be reminded and resolved in my spirit that Jesus is worth it. If my eyes are continually fixed on Him than it shouldn't be as difficult to deny whatever my flesh is telling me it wants in a moment. It should be easier to say, "No, I won't do this thing," or "Yes, I will gladly do that thing," because whatever it is I'm giving up is nothing in comparison to the worth of Jesus. (And I say "should" because I'm still trying to work this one out. I don't always put my eyes on Him which is part of what this journey is about.

So for today, here are some things I felt the Lord telling me this morning:
-I'm loved whether I do things or not.
-The things He asks me to do with Him are because He promises life for me.
-That I can trust that, while keeping my eyes on Him, everything I do is within the will of God, no matter how big or small.
-Today, we (God and I) are going to swim in the waters of His grace
-As I do life, I can ask Him what He's doing and we can do that together. He told me that sometimes I'm going to join Him and other times He wants to join me because He loves me and loves what I do.
-Practically, I felt like God said that I can love Him today by calling out what He loves in other people (aka encouragement).

So if you're reading this you can keep me accountable to that and tomorrow I hope to post about what God does!