Doing things that you don’t particularly love to do is part of every kind of relationship. Maybe it means a compromise, other times no compromise at all but simply going with the flow, but sometimes it means obedience.
For example, I know my dad really dislikes eating salad, especially tomatoes, with a passion. Because he loves my mom however, he eats it anyways. He knows my mom loves it when he eats salad, so because he loves her, he has grown to love to eat salad because he knows it will make her happy. He has learned to love something he did not love beforehand, because he loves someone who enjoys the undesirable thing.
Here is a different example outside of marriage with my best friend Jack. In high school, Jack went to all of my symphony performances that he could. I knew he did not particularly enjoy them, but to me that made it mean so much more. He came because he wanted to show that he loved me. He loves me more and wants to show his support far more than spending 3 hours in a seat listening to classical music. This is love.
What does this have to say about our relationship with God? It has everything to say about obedience.
Christ calls us to live by a certain standard and constantly strive, dependent on the strength of the Holy Spirit, to be more like Christ. He calls us with the first commandment to love God.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” -Matthew 22:36-40
This also being the passage I chose to bring up last week as well, but this week focusing on the first of the great commandments. Jesus calls us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So, when Christ calls us to love Him, part of that means to strive to be more like Him, even though sometimes we do not want to, or it is too hard, when our flesh is prone to wander from His glory.
Part of striving to live more like Christ is commitment. We have to be ready to commit everything to God. He calls us to give our bodies as living sacrifices in Romans 12:1. When we commit ourselves to God, we are promising to run the race to win. We must have this attitude when it comes to our faith as well; that we do everything with such zeal and confidence because we are burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit within us.
This commitment is proof of our love of God. We must give our all for the one who gave His all for us. We simply must not dedicate our lives to God due to anything else but love. Love must be the motive of our sacrifice, because that is how we glorify God and enjoy Him. There will be things that we will not want to do, but we must do them because it will glorify God and please Him. That is the chief end of man, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. (Westminster Catechism)
We fall and often do not have the courage or strength to change for Him that is what the Holy Spirit is with us for; to give us the strength needed to pursue holiness, godliness, and God.
This is what it looks like to truly love God, to want to strive to be more like Him in our everyday lives. In order to do this, we must be wholeheartedly committed to run the race to win, no matter the earthly cost for our commitment. We must depend on God and the strength and wisdom that He gives to us through the Holy Spirit. We must keep other accountable to these things as well. We must do these things because we love God, He knows what’s best for us, and it will glorify Him.
What are some things that you dislike doing that you feel convicted to do? Write them down, I promise, it helps.
How can you depend more on the Holy Spirit to help you change?
What is your motive in why you want to be more Christ-like? It’s a deep question, it can be as small as, it makes me look better in front of my friends.
“I have sworn an oath and confirmed it,
to keep your righteous rules.
I am severely afflicted;
give me life, O Lord, according to your word!
Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord,
and teach me your rules.”-Psalm 119:106-108
“A loving response to God’s grace and mercy is the only motive acceptable to God for the commitment Paul called for”-Jerry Bridges in The Discipline of Grace
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