Hi everyone. I feel like for the past few years i have been wandering. I have been aware of God reforming by faith to remove some of the useless things I’ve picked up along the way. Along the way I’m also aware of a childish element within. Where I’ve not practiced self control and have indulged the distractions that the world throws at us.
A frequent mediation during this period has been John 14:21 and asking myself what does it mean to keep Jesus’ commands. I think part of what God has been removing is my need to ” feel “ what is right. For example, do i need to help a sense of euphoria every time i join in worship in order to truly worship God? I think not and I’ve thought that way for a long time but there is this longing to feel that way and an unconscious sense that of i don’t feel that way then something is wrong. Now i find myself to be content in that space. It’s like God delights in being in ordinary life without all the hype we want to drum up. So that is one of my steps in God’s direction.
I wonder what others have to say about what it means to keep/obey Jesus’s commands.
@chris, thank you for this very honest and insightful reflection.
I have been reading the Gospel of Mark with the fall Growth Group. Jesus is extraordinary.
But the disciples are very ordinary. Loyalty, obedience, courage… and mistakes, struggles, doubts, failures.
They spent a lot of time together just walking down roads, eating meals, sleeping, etc. There’s no way it was a constant state of euphoria. Mark gives no sense that they energetically sang worship songs 24/7.
Whatever it means to keep Jesus’ commands, I think this is aligned with becoming fully human. And that means it is integrated with all of our emotions and limitations.
Thank you for sharing with vulnerability. I have often enjoyed reading your reflections and thanks for taking the time to post again. Glad to hear how your experience of worship has changed for the better! Praise God.
Love to hear more! As for me, John 14:21 is very comforting and in many ways it reminds me of Matthew 5:8. I think it can be interpreted in two ways. One way is a works-based approach, where obeying commands earns us the reward of experiencing God. The other way is a grace-based approach, where we are already experiencing God to some extent because of our faith in Christ. This experience motivates us to seek God’s will more and, and by reliance on the Holy Spirit, we naturally seek to follow His commands. The reward of seeing God becomes a natural outcome of this ongoing relationship of progressing towards moral perfection, though it may not be fully attained, it is within the context of growing intimacy with God. Similarly, in Old Testament tabernacle worship, the high priest could have a direct encounter with God in the Holy of Holies but it was not due to moral perfection, but through sincere repentance and offerings. The aim was love of God, and obedience followed as a natural result. I guess the question is - Is love the reason we are seeking God?
Hi Lakshmi, thanks for taking the time to reply. I think my reflections have revolved around a reprocessing what I have believed about the Christian life. I feel that much of my Christian experience has been very grace heavy but obedience light, if that makes sense. So if I go through a season in which I struggle with sin, worry, doubts, or anything that reflects a struggle with my faith the counsel has generally been centered around the theme of Romans 8:38-39. Nothing can separate me from God’s love. I’ve always included my personal struggles as being included in the “nothing”. But then as my discipleship journey shifted to include the dynamic of hearing and obeying Christ’s commands I have wondered what that means. I can easily dismiss the idea of earning God’s love and grace. But if I repeatedly have the same struggle throughout my Christian life i am left questioning am I remaining IN Him? A quick answer is I don’t think so. If that is the case then what is the effects of that for someone who purports to be a Christian that believes the Gospel and trusts in Christ’s atoning sacrifice?
I have more i can say but I wanted to give you a reply while i had the opportunity.