Category: Devotion of the Day

ABIDING AND OBEYING

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.
John 15:10

This is only one of many verses that connect fellowship with Christ with obedience to Him. We are His friends if we do His commandments. If we do God’s will we are Jesus’ brother and sister. He that has and keeps His commandments, he it is that loves the Lord.

We are prone to make much of abiding, not much of obeying. We bask in the blessedness of being His friends, dwelling in Him, being hid with Christ in God. But Jesus always joins this holy estate with practical obedience. We hang up promises as mottoes but we are not so fond of commandments. Contemplation and adoration and mysticism have their place, but the friend of Jesus is the man who does what Christ commands him. To be sure, His commandment is that we love one another, but that includes a lot of other commandments and is as practical as the Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians.

A lot of people sing, “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” who are not keeping His commandments. And He said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words.”

STRATEGY FOR VICTORY

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21

“Overcome evil with good” – here is a principle often overlooked. We do not master our sins and doubts and fears by direct frontal assault, taking them one by one. It is better to concentrate on the positive, become occupied with the Lord, and leave these evils to die from neglect. General MacArthur did not take each Japanese outpost on the way back to the Philippines. He concentrated on a few major objectives and left the other enemy garrisons to “rot on the vine.” If we become taken up with every temptation and difficulty we shall wear ourselves out on secondary skirmishes. Let us rather put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. We can circumvent a lot of our worries by giving our attention to the good. Most of our ailments will die from neglect. We give them importance when we devote time and thought to them.

Make your life a major drive with Christ the objective – “This one thing I do” – and let the devil’s minor outposts starve to death.