Love and Obedience

C.S. Lewis once wrote:

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

It is here in the every day things of life that we lose sight of God.

We forget the cross or become too comfortable with the idea that God took flesh. The mystery is lost on us. The mystery that the God of the universe stepped into time and took a physical tent in order to die a horrific death, paying the penalty for our sin. My heart bursts and my mind reels, yet I too get comfortable.

Crosses are everywhere. From birth I have been told about Jesus – his birth, life, death, and resurrection. I am grateful, but comfortable. My heart fell in and out of love with Jesus like it does with clothes. Yet God never intended that. He wants not only or minds, but our hearts – fully devoted and fully in love with Him. Hearts aware of how desperately they need Him are hearts that are desperately and infinitely in love with Him.

It is this love that translates into obedience. 1 John 5:3 says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…” True love the kind that flows from a grateful heart translates into a life of humble obedience.

The depth of our love for God determines the depth of our obedience.

Maybe that is why we struggle in the same sin over and over again. Not that we must muster up love in order to obey, but that we do not have a proper view of ourselves. When we have the proper perspective of ourselves love for God flourishes and obedience becomes not drudgery, but a joy to show our love for Him.

What are you doing to stay deeply in love with God? Join in the discussion.