²¹ Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. ²² And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

²³ And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us

This Is His Commandment

I know it seems like I’m beating a dead horse. Especially for those who have been following along with our latest video series (either in person or by video). We are called to believe (and love) God and love others. If we’d simply do those two things, everything else would fall into place. Rather than focus on all kinds of do’s and don’ts, just put your energy into loving God and loving others.

It’s incredible to think how often people miss this. I mean, it should be fairly obvious by now, and yet for many, the religious trap is too difficult to avoid. We begin by loving God and loving others and before we know it, we’re adding all kinds of other rules and regulations. It’s as if we want it to be difficult to be successful in our spiritual journey. We want to make it hard so that we can pat ourselves on the back because of our hard work.

And so, religious people continue to miss the point. They want to do a bunch of things in order to be accepted by God. In order to earn God’s approval. So that they may be able to boldly enter the presence of God. And yet, God continues to point us back to the primal commandment: love God and love others. Two things we cannot do without the strength and leading of the Spirit of God. As God opens our hearts to loving the way we were designed to, we suddenly find ourselves able to enter his presence with confidence. God no longer is someone we avoid because of the fear of our own failure. Rather, we enter his presence confidence in the love that he has for us and the love we have for him.

My prayer: Lord, help me to avoid the trap of striving to do things in order to be good enough to enter your presence. May I never lose sight of the value of grace in my life. Because of grace, I can love you and others simply because of a desire to do so, and not a duty to perform. I’m accepted because of what you’ve done on my behalf. Thank you.

Until tomorrow.