Last week, I shared about Jesus’ loving and non-forceful nature. He is the sweetest man who ever lived and will live forever. If the bible tells us that Jesus is God revealed in flesh and blood, that tells us that God has the same nature. Looking through the Books of the prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and so on – we see a God whose heart goes out to His lost children. A God who goes on about His love for His children, who desires to see His lost children saved to the uttermost. See what He says in Ezekiel 18:31-32
“Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies”, says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
Ezekiel 18:31-32
If you would agree with me, the tone of this verse screams – Loving father! When He goes all hard on His children, best believe that they or we must have crossed the line way too far. I hope that up to this point, you can see for yourself the love that God has for you and me. It is not His desire to see us hurt, broken, or cast down. The sad truth is that we suffer the things we do because of sin. For every time a law is broken, there are always consequences. When God framed the earth and the whole world, He framed it all with laws in motion. Just as we see in the physical realm, for every law broken – there are consequences for them.
Furthermore, I believe this is the most important to me; when God made you and I – He made us to be with Him, to enjoy sweet fellowship with Him. All through the scriptures, we see God calling us back to intimacy with Him. As I highlighted in my last blog post, Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:20 that He stands at the door knocking, with the hopes that we open up to Him. When we do, He would come in to dine with us and be with us. This shows us that the King of Kings, the almighty God would love to be with us always.
Now, let me paint this picture for us or rather ask this question. How long can you stay in a room with a homeless man or woman who has poop, pee all over, and hasn’t showered for months, maybe years? You and I would probably walk so fast away from this man or woman because of the stench. Even if you and I decide to stay with them, we would advocate for them to get cleaned up. Now let us bring it back to us, how many of us would go to the president of our countries or visit the Queen smelling filthy or unwashed for days? None of us, right? We would go visit these dignitaries looking and smelling our best.
This physical theory also applies to the spiritual state of our lives. Sin to our spirit man looks and smells the same way a dirty homeless man looks and smells. If we can’t approach worldly dignitaries smelling or looking awful, how much more we approach God who is spirit in a state of spiritual filth?
Now, this is why God introduced the law to us. He introduced the system of the law to help us live clean, so He can dwell amongst us while we have easy access to Him as well. Even more, He sent His only begotten son to come to fulfill the requirements of all the laws He put in place – Matthew 5:17. Therefore, taking the Yoke of Jesus Christ which is light would help us walk in the fulfillment of God’s desires for our lives –Matthew 11:29. To take off Jesus’ yoke simply means to be joined with Him, to walk with Him, follow His footsteps, to and follow His leading to fulfilling all that has been written concerning you in the heavens.
Do you see that all of these are in our best interests? All of the “laws” or “commandments” that people call burdensome and rigid are in our best interests. God wants the best for us, God wants us to have His presence at all times. He doesn’t want us to hear “access denied” because of spiritual filth. So you see my dear why apostle John admonishes us, reminds us in I John 5:3 that God’s love is that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
How do I move from feeling forced to obey God’s commandments to loving and living it out? You may ask
- The answer is to love up on God. His love for us is readily available, if we look left and center, we will see His love for us. A good question to ask is, “Have I opened the door of my heart to receive all of God’s love for me?” I realize that as humans, when we genuinely love people, we find it easy to do their bidding, it is never burdensome to go miles for the ones we love. This same theory applies to our walk with God. Genuinely giving our hearts to loving God makes it super easy to do all that He wants us to do.
- The next step is to spend time in God’s word, like genuinely giving yourself to learning about God’s nature, desires for us, and His love for us. His word is spirit and life, the more time you give to the study of His word, the more light and life you give entrance into your life and hearts. Spending time in God’s word is like resuscitating your dead spirit man, it’s like teaching your once-dead spirit man how to breathe and love again because sadly sin kills our ability to love genuinely.
- This next point is a personal favorite of mine – worship! Spend some good time worshipping God. There are “loads” of worship ministers who have written and have ministrations that would help you connect with God. I’d share one of my playlists on Spotify here just in case you need inspiration: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ZWEZGima8HgFZOiyFbZ81?si=Z4Ffx6SDTe65g8AEKNrpaA.
I pray that you embrace all of God’s love for you, that you live in the reality of God’s plans for your lives, and that you are renewed and strengthened to live for and with Jesus in Jesus’ name. Amen.