Obeying God’s Will
Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.
Deuteronomy 11:1
The Bible reveals the will of God for our lives: His decrees, his laws, and his commands. Can we know and obey all the commands of God? Does God expect us to obey his rules as we obey the laws of society? Our worldly natures don’t always agree with our Lord’s commands, making them difficult to obey. How are we to overcome our worldly natures and live in a Godly manner?
The Lord gives us commands to show us how we fall short of his perfection. We can never be good enough to please God because we are not perfect, due to our sinful natures. The Lord knows we have inherited a sinful nature, but he has made a way for us to stand in perfection before him. He gave our sins to Christ who destroyed them on the cross. When we accept Christ, he sends the Holy Spirit to live in us. God now sees Jesus in us; Christ forgives our sins and intercedes for us, making us sinless before the Father.
The Holy Spirit changes our hearts, and all the ways of God become natural. A heart filled with God’s love fulfills the commands of God. He said to them, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 23:37-38) The whole law depends on these two commands. Without a changed heart we cannot please God, because God looks at our heart.
The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) The Lord looks at our hearts, which are revealed by our thoughts. This is good because a Christian’s heart wants to be perfect. However, we live in the flesh and we cannot be perfect.
To obey the Lord, and to be pleasing to the Lord is to let the Spirit change our hearts. A heart for God, a humble heart that desires to serve the Lord, is an obedient heart. And while we can have a perfect heart, we cannot have perfect thoughts. Sometimes our thoughts are sinful, but we learn to capture these thoughts through obedience to Christ. Even as we fight off sinful thoughts, our hearts wish that all sinful thoughts would disappear.
Today know the desires of your heart, and keep those desires pleasing to God. If we have Godly hearts, then we are motivated to live Godly lives. A heart that is motivated to serve the Lord brings pleasure to God.
Let’s Pray: Lord, mold me to have the mind and heart of Jesus through the guidance of the Spirit. Help me to be proactive in seeking to serve you and in bringing Christ to lost souls. Fill me with the Spirit so that everything I do will be through the power of Christ in me. In Jesus name, Amen