The Juice That Fuels Our Devotion
A book that I lent out was returned to me yesterday. I forgot I even lent it out.
It is Oswald Chambers’s devotional, My Utmost For His Highest.
As I read his passage for today, two quotes caught my attention. The first quote is about Jesus’ obedience.
Chambers writes, “The Son was obedient as our Redeemer because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.”
He points out that Jesus’ intimate relationship with the Father determined His identity and Abba’s love-fueled Jesus’ obedience. He didn’t obey the Father to improve His status but as an expression of His status as God’s Son.
Jesus’ obedience expressed His love for the Father. His delight in being His Son. Love obeys, and this truth holds for us as well.
Jesus’ obedience expressed His love for the Father. His delight in being His Son. Love obeys, and this truth holds for us as well.
It is important for you to embrace God’s love for you and the identity Jesus shares with you.
Believers need never obey God to be loved but out of the daily love we have in Christ. Never view your obedience as a means to earn God’s love but as the result of being loved, as the fruit of your relationship with God, and the daily love you experience in Christ.
Thus, the goal is to experience by faith God’s great love for you.
The second quote states, “The whole attitude of our life is one of obedience to Him.”
This isn’t every Christian’s experience.
God’s love has the power to transform our hearts and attitudes. Yet it’s as we delight in our relationship with God, and by faith that we “put on” our identity as His holy, chosen, and beloved children, obedience becomes a compelling response.
God’s love has the power to transform our hearts and attitudes. Yet it’s as we delight in our relationship with God, and by faith that we “put on” our identity as His holy, chosen, and beloved children, obedience becomes a compelling response.
Obedience is still a choice we must make.
But it’s easier to choose as we rest assured that God loves us unconditionally, whatever is going on, and that our choice to obey Him is an expression of our love for Him.
It’s easier to choose to obey God as we rest assured that He loves us unconditionally, whatever is going on, and that our choice to obey Him is an expression of our love for Him.
The transformative power of God’s grace is available to all who trust Him for it. ALL. YOU.
That’s a good thing because you can never strive enough to merit God’s love. Yet, it is freely given to you through the crucified, risen, and exalted One, Jesus Christ. Love, hope, meaning, and eternal life.
As believers, let us continually look to Jesus and live out of His grace, and be shaped by the daily experience of God’s love so that we may respond from a full heart.
For those who have not yet received God’s forgiveness nor accepted God’s love, He extends each to you in Jesus. He is waiting to embrace you and give you a new identity as a beloved child of God. In this relationship that Jesus extends, you will find true joy, peace, and purpose in your life.