God is love; His will is always best. God is all-knowing; His will is always right. Gos is all-powerful; He can enable me to do His will
p.77
Share to the group a statement or scripture that resonates with you from today’s reading and a responding prayer…
“When God gives a commandment, He is not restricting me. He is freeing me.”
I don’t really consider my life as restricted under God’s commandments, but I haven’t pondered about the implications of them freeing me to “guide me to life’s best” lately. I appreciated the second to last paragraph of the sequelae of causes/effects.
“This is not just following the letter of the law but following the spirit of the command as well.”
This was also a good reminder that my relationship with God isn’t a checklist, but a loving, trusting, obedient walk with Him as He leads me. God, I pray that you’d help me to better understand the deep implications of what it means to obey, believe, trust, love and know you more. Thank you for loving me first
The line that stood out most to me today is “A love relationship with God requires that you demonstrate your love by obedience”
Later stated in that passage is “if you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem”. And that whole paragraph acts as a great reminder that you can’t demonstrate your love truly unless you submit to the Lord and obey him fully. So by slipping up and acting in a less Christ-like manner, my love relationship with God will be hurt.
I pray that I can continue to have the strength to fully obey the Lord, and to understand that God’s nature is love and he will always give me his best.
In today’s study, the statement that most resonated with me was that God is all-knowing and His directions are always right. It’s so easy to forget that God is omniscient and all-powerful to the point where we end up doubting God’s plan for us and possibly even resenting Him for placing us through bewildering situations and other hardships. Nonetheless, this statement was a great reminder that God guides us toward certain paths because He knows that those paths are best for us and will draw ourselves closer to the Lord. Thus, we must place our trust in God and obey Him although we may sometimes not see His big picture because God has all knowledge of the past, present, and future and his directions will always be trustworthy.
Father God, I pray that I may continue to trust in Your word, Your guidance, and Your plan even though there may be times where my myopic viewpoint hinders me from seeing Your big picture for me, because You are all-knowing and Your directions are always right. I pray this in Your Son’s name, Amen.
Today’s reading was an amazing reminder of how important obedience is towards the Lord. How obedience is a direct way of showing love towards the Lord. However, this only start through knowing, loving, believing, and trusting in Him with everything. That the good and bad He puts me through is because He loves me and wants me to receive life abundantly. At times it can and will be tough when we go through trials that challenge are faith but I pray to remember to see it from God’s lens instead of my human distorted pov. To remember how steadfast You are Lord and Your nature is to love, that You are love. To know You are all-knowing and all-powerful so through You is anything possible.
Lord I pray to be constant and steadfast in You as You are in me. To love You as You love me. To lean on You through any trials. To obey whatever You put on my heart. Amen
From Parker:
The line that stood out most to me today is “A love relationship with God requires that you demonstrate your love by obedience”
Later stated in that passage is “if you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem”. And that whole paragraph acts as a great reminder that you can’t demonstrate your love truly unless you submit to the Lord and obey him fully. So by slipping up and acting in a less Christ-like manner, my love relationship with God will be hurt.
I pray that I can continue to have the strength to fully obey the Lord, and to understand that God’s nature is love and he will always give me his best.
From don (late)
“God is love. Because of His love, His will for you is always best. He is all-knowing, so His directions are always right. He has given His commands so you can prosper and live life to its fullest measure. If you love Him, you will obey Him!”
This chapter made me think of 1 John 4:18, which starts, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts put fear.” This seems to tie in with the points that God is love, God is all-knowing, and God is all-powerful. If we understand these facts to be unalterably true about God, then what do we really have to fear? His perfect love casts out all fear.
Once we come to know God, and He has revealed His character to us through His Word and through daily life, we begin to learn that we can trust Him. Subsequently, we begin to see how much He truly loves us, which then begins to cause us to love Him back. We then begin to realize that the best way to express our love for Him is by obedience, as the author pointed out.
I must admit that, in times past, I have learned that God desires the best for me the hard way- through His discipline. Everytime I chose to disobey God’s commands, and do things my way, it always and only led to self-destructive tendencies. There was only death in view- both spiritually and literally. But when He would step in and discipline me, and I turned back to Him and became obedient, there would be blessing and life. Today, I know to trust Him at His Word. He is God, and He loves me. He knows what’s best, and is always right.
Lord, thank You for Your Words of life! Thank You for the way in which You reveal Yourself to us, in Your perfect time and Your perfect way! I pray that you would enable us, by the power of Your Spirit, to walk in loving obedience to You, that we would experience the abundant life You have for us. Lead us on the path of life, and guide us by the light of Your truth.