GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” John 14:15 (NIV)

Jesus said you show your love for him when you do what he tells you to do.

This doesn’t mean your love for him is an obligation. That’s the quickest way to destroy love; besides, love is not demanding.

It means, because you love Jesus, you care about the things that matter to him. You become one with the will of Jesus, and his will is to always do what the Father tells him to do. In this way, you become one with Jesus and one with your Heavenly Father.

This oneness is reinforced by the Holy Spirit working within us, connecting us to God and to other believers. You, then, love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27, NIV). This oneness is reinforced by the Holy Spirit working within us, connecting us to God and to other believers.

The more you obey God in the details of your life, the more real he becomes to you. You begin to see, day in and day out, that God faithfully levels the path before you and covers the path you leave behind.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NIV)

To love God with your whole mind requires you to think like God.

Impossible? Of course, unless you’re connected to God through the Holy Spirit within. This connection initiates the renewing of your mind, directing you to think upon the things above and not the things below, to set your thinking on the things of God as you abandon self-absorbed thinking.

This doesn’t mean you become a mindless robot, rather it means your thoughts start to match God’s thoughts and you’re perspective about people and situations start to match God’s perspective.

Thinking like God means –

• You trust his guidance and no longer rely on your own understanding;
• You allow God to interpret the facts, since he knows the whole truth;
• You measure your thoughts against God’s Word and God’s character;
• You take ungodly thoughts captive and bring them before King Jesus.

You will not be able to change the way you think without God’s help — But this dependence on him brings you to a place of strength, not weakness. Do you consider Jesus weak when he explained he only says and does what the Father tells him to do and say? We have Jesus-life within, transforming us into portraits of Jesus. How can we be Jesus-like if we remain independent of God in our thoughts and their resulting actions?

Start asking yourself, “What would Jesus think?” — If you want to develop the mind of Christ, you need to begin thinking like Jesus. His thoughts were focused on the Father; he was in constant conversation with the Father. Jesus was self-forgetful, thinking more of others than himself.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NIV)

God wants your heart to beat in such perfect rhythm with his own that your passions merge with his passions. God wants you to love others as if your heart were one with his heart.

And the way you start loving others with a heart like God’s is to first love God with all your heart. This means you focus your heart on those things that matter most to God and you let go of anything that hinders your ability to align with God’s heart.

Jesus matched his heart with the Father’s heart, obeying everything the Father told him to do. His heart beat so closely with the Father’s that he did nothing without the Father’s direction and blessing. King David was called a man after God’s own heart because he cared about the things that mattered most to God and because he did what God told him to do.

Your heart can beat as one with God’s – That’s his design, and he wouldn’t set you up for failure or ask you to do something he’s unwilling to support. He is working toward brining your heart into rhythm with his.

You can love with whole-hearted God-love – The Holy Spirit connects you to God’s love, and it will flow through you to others.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker
 
Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.” Jeremiah 2:2 (NIV)
 
The word devotion in Jeremiah 2:2 is a translation of the Hebrew word kesed, which is often translated as “loving mercy” or “loving kindness.” It is a love of relentless pursuit, and throughout the Bible, it shows up like mile-markers measuring God’s grace-chase after his prodigal sons and daughters, refusing to let them get away from the mercy of his love.

But something surprised me in these prophetic words from Jeremiah. In a sense, God says, “I remember the devoted, loyal love of your youth. You were like a new bride with love dancing in your eyes, and you’d follow me through the desert or into a desolate land.”

In a sense, God says, “I remember your youth, when you chased after me with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.” If you once chased after God with every bit of your being, then it is possible to do it again.

God says we’re capable of giving him our whole love. If he says we can, why do we say we can’t?

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.