Making Myself at Home

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10 KJV

So often I have missed the simplicity of God’s words or misunderstood them all together. Complicated them and kept them out of reach. Misread them and missed the message God wanted me to digest. Approached Scripture with preconceived ideas that hindered me from taking in truth and hence applying truth. What a huge corner is turned when God begins to enlighten me on the meaning and mystery of His Word!

For years I would read a verse like John 15:10 and come away with the idea that God’s love for me is contingent on my obedience to His commandments. Not so! This verse does not say, “Keep My commandments and I will love you.” It tells me if I keep His commandments I will abide in His love. I will make myself at home in His love. Understand it, embrace it, receive it, live out of it, and be changed by it. What a difference! Obedience is the doorway that opens my life to fully experiencing God’s love….it is not the condition, foundation, or prerequisite for that love. If that were the case, how in the world could God love me before I even knew Him? How could He love me while I was still in my sin?

Sometimes I have even limited His commandments to a list of does and don’ts. A type of law keeping. Then I wonder why God seems like a harsh law giver rather than a Shepherd, Father, and Friend. While God certainly has things for me to do and things for me to avoid in this life, His commands are broader. This morning, He is graciously revealing a list of commands that are meant to draw me closer to Him. Abiding in His love results from confessing sin to Him, listening to Him, learning from Him, leaning on Him, seeking Him, meditating on Him, looking to Him, following Him, depending on Him, resting in Him, embracing Him, speaking to Him, yielding to Him, receiving from Him, knowing Him, trusting Him, reflecting Him, believing Him, and living for Him. That list is not complete but it is powerful. Oh what I miss when any of these ingredients are missing from the recipe of my life!

Father, I have always had Your love but I am just now learning how to make myself at home in it! How to revel in it. How to delight in it. Obedience no longer has to be a word that intimidates me but rather it can be a word that invites me to abide in Your love. Amen.