JOHN 14:23

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."

TO PONDER

There's a funny little thing that sometimes happens in our family and it makes me very suspicious. From time to time, one of my children will come up to me and without any prompting or leading will say, "I love you Dad" and give me a great big hug.

What I have learned is that if I just let that hang there for a moment and reassure them with an "I love you too", than not too long later a confession of some wrongdoing or a broken household item is probably on its way.

We've had discussions a bit like the one Jesus seems to be having in today's reading. "I'm glad that you love me, and what has happened doesn't stop me from loving you, but a better way to show dad you love him, might be to take better care of his stuff, or by listening and following my instructions so that these kinds of things don't happen in the first place.

But isn't that often just how we behave with Jesus. We sing songs and hymns at church on Sunday that talk about our love for God and then go out to morning tea and start gossiping about the new couple who moved in down the road or the way that someone has done morning tea differently than usual. We pray, "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" but then don't spend too much time worrying about how that will might be done in our own lives - we just want him to make others behave - it doesn't occur to us that we might be the place where the free reign of the kingdom of God is getting choked up.

I'm going to share a line you are likely to hear a bit over the next few weeks (I pinched it from our sermon preparation chat for Sunday week) but as the LifeWay pastors were discussing God's word together, someone came up with the following statement, "God isn't asking for perfection, just obedience".

God doesn't need you to get your life in order before he takes up residence with you - Jesus took care of that on the cross. If you want to keep being where God is at work though, then it might be a good idea to get busy going where he goes and doing what he asks don't ya think?

PRAYER: Gracious Heavenly Father, I know there are times when I only remember to come to you when something has gone wrong. Today I ask that you help me to love you wholeheartedly and to trust you with everything I have and all I hope to be so that where you are, I may also be. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle