Trust part 4
Obedience is a trust issue. Because the thing we are supposed to obey is the New Commandment. Which goes like this: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). Which really makes it pretty simple. Receive and release the love of God. Love people as much as God loves you. But that's where the trust comes in. Because if you don't know and believe the love of God, then you don't have any love to give anybody else. We love because He first loved us. We love Him because He first loved us. We love each other because He first loved us. We love Him BY loving each other because He first loved us. God doesn't require blind faith. He gave us something (someONE, Jesus, Himself, LOVE) to believe in. He showed us what love is by laying His life down for us on the cross. By giving His life for us, and giving His life to us. By wrapping us up in Himself, dying, and then coming back to life. So that we could have life more abundantly. So that we could have HIS life. His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! And the way we live that life--the way we experience Jesus living His own life in us, and through us, and as us--is not by trying to get something. Its by giving what we've got. We experience the love of God when we love people. When we, again, love God BY loving people. When we share the gift we've been given. When we give it away. And I just want to put this out there: "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him" (1 John 2:7-10). A few keys here: The "New" Commandment is really the ONLY commandment. "Let there be light." The first thing God is ever recorded as saying. And since God is light, and God is love, it could also be written as, "Let there be love." Because to be in the light means to be in the love. And if you're in the light you can see where you're going. If you're in the love you can't stumble or fall. Love holds us up. Love holds us together. Love is only thing that is truly trustworthy. Because love never fails. I mentioned this yesterday, and I think I'm going to hit it tomorrow to end this Rant series... let God be the truth and every man a liar. Let LOVE be the truth. People may let you down, but love never will. You can believe in love. You can have faith in God. Because He is faithful. You can trust God, because He is trustworthy. He doesn't expect you to do anything He hasn't already done. Love other AS He loves you. Just receive it and release it. Let it in (because it--HE--is already in) and let it out. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Trust that love will light the way. Follow your heart. Trust your gut. The deep calls out to the deep. And deep down we know what's real. We know what's worth putting our faith in. What's worth trusting. What's worth obeying. And its love. Its all about love...