““As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
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Living a life that reflects the love of Christ unto others is an example of abiding in Him. Though we are told to keep his commandments, we know that we are not perfect and cannot do this alone. We live in a fallen world and sin is a part of it. What we can do, however, is focus our daily lives on him and seek his guidance for our path. No, we can’t be perfect, but we certainly can try.
““These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
Sometimes the greatest joy comes from sacrifice. In the Lord's sacrifice of his son for payment on our sins, we can have the joy of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life. Just like the joy that comes on Christmas morning when you watch your family open the presents you carefully chose, wrapped, and saved for them. Like the joy in your love ones eyes when you set aside your work to spend time with them, sacrifices can come with great rewards. But, what are we really sacrificing in return for these rewards? What is the Lord asking us to give up?
We are sacrificing selfish wants and needs. Sacrificing their earthly desires and distractions that keep us from our walk with him, giving up our idols. Abiding in Him, means separating from the world. We may live in it but we do not have to live of it.
“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
Jesus sacrificed His life for all of us, and He called us friends. If I sit for a moment and think about the things in my life I am unwilling to lay down or give up, I will find that once again idols have crept in and taken hold. We live in a state of endless weeding, plucking out the undesirable things that have grown up between the cracks on our path. If Jesus was willing to give up his life, I should be more than willing to give up that movie, that book, that hobby, that place…
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.”
We were chosen especially by Him for this path, appointed by the Father to share His love with the rest of the world. I pray today that you will find the joy that comes in sacrificing the things that keep us from His love, the satisfaction of knowing you have weeded out another distraction, And the love that overflows your heart when you share His perfect love with one another.
Have a blessed day little Sparrows
-ScriptureSparrow
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