Ask yourself: what does it mean to obey God? What is loving obedience?
It means that God is not a dictator; He is a faithful, LOVING King who wants the best for us. He wants us to be happy and loved and full of joy. He wants us to do the activities that make us happy - for example, for me gymnastics dance kung fu and figure skating.
It means that God wants us to follow Him because He is wiser and knows us more than we know ourselves, because like novelists, He plotted us out - thought about us, decided what we would want to do, the scents that would please us, the being we would be forever - before He even put us in our mother's womb. He wants us to see and experience His GREAT LOVE.
He inspires us to LOVE Him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and spirit, as well as our neighbors and even our enemies. He doesn't want us to obey out of fear, although it's okay to fear Him sometimes. Remember then, that perfect LOVE casts out all FEAR.
Ask yourself this: What is Love? GOD is LOVE. Love is patient, kind, Truthful, eternal, and free. Love gives GRACE, which is unmerited favor, that we didn't earn but is given to us because Jesus died on a cross to destroy sin and death and chaos. He gives us GRACE because He LOVES us in a way that may be hard for most people to fathom. As an archangel, I want to love people in the same way, and do what Jesus would do, but I don't want to be Him.
Love is LIVING WATER. Love is Jesus inside of your HEART. Living Water is given to us from Jesus, like He gave water to the gentile woman at the well. People think Jesus is a "Jew" but He is Christian, because He is the Christ.
Loving obedience comes when you trust Him out of LOVE, knowing He is wiser. You obey for God's sake, and for your sake, and for the sake of all of God's People. You obey for your well-being, because LOVE of GOD brings you PEACE and TRANQUILITY. It's to shine a light upon other people and use your gifts to inspire and teach other people. It's to bring other people to God.
God's WORD of the day:
Old Testament:
"And a highway will be there; it will be Called the Way of Holiness; It will be there for those who walk on that way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return." ~Isaiah 35:8-10a.
New Testament:
"Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" ~Acs 4:11-12
Knowing all of this, trust that God will protect you. God will treasure you and cherish you and give you a Way out of the darkness. He is the cornerstone of LOVE. He created LOVE and COMPASSION and TRUTH. So seek Eternal Truth, and breathe in God's air. Some ways to fight evil: say, "Breath of God, breathe on me." "Oh God oh God I need you." Preach to them. "I command you to leave in the name of Jesus Christ." "The blood of Christ is over me now and forever more." "I plead the blood of Jesus Christ." Then explain it. And preach about God's LIGHT and LOVE and the demons will leave.
Love,
Rebecca
