"Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:5–6)
There are a lot of people who think they should keep the Ten Commandments because they are under the impression that God will punish them if they don’t. But the fact is that God loves us, and we should keep His commandments because we are aware of His incredible love. For example, I want to keep my marriage vow because of the love I have for my wife Kelly.
We need to know that God accepts us as we are. We don’t have to do anything to earn His approval. We don’t have to do anything to merit His love. In spite of our shortcomings and in spite of our sins, God loves us.
Some people come from homes in which their fathers never expressed love or showed any affection toward them. Therefore, they take that image of their earthly fathers and place it on their Heavenly Father. They spend the rest of their lives trying to earn the approval of God, who already has given His approval to them.
He loves us just as we are. Of course, He doesn’t want to leave us that way. We change because of our association with our Heavenly Father. The change is not because God is unhappy with me, but rather it is a return to the original intention God had for me.
Realizing this should cause us to want to love Him. As 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.” So instead of wanting to keep God’s commandments to earn His love, we should want to keep them because of His love for us. We should want to keep His commandments because we know they are right. It all comes down to our motives.
Be Blessed today,
Pastor Kevin
No comments:
Post a Comment