Love & Obedience

"Why can't you love me, GW?"

This was the question that haunted me day and night for several weeks during the late fall and early winter of 1995. This was the question that led me into the realization that my relationship with God was counterfeit.

As I wrestled with this question in my heart and mind, the Holy Spirit led me to John 14:15 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been attending a weekly Bible study and professing to be a Christian while all the while ignoring God's commands. I was an immoral person living a publicly immoral life. Until the moment I read that verse for the first time, I had felt no remorse or expressed any repentance for my choices in life.

In December 1995 while watching a Christmas program at a local church in Wilmington, NC, I gave my life to Christ in the silence of my heart. I wish I could say that my life turned around on a dime, but it didn't. It was messy. I was so entrenched in my sin that getting out just wasn't a simple process. It involved months and many more bad decisions made by me in my immature faith. I had discovered a newfound love in my life, but I still didn't know how to love God properly.

How often do we see love relationships when one or both people are ignorant of knowing how to love properly? It's an immature love, and dysfunction becomes a part of that relationship as a result. The Bible tells us that God's love for us is perfect. So, we can rest assured that any problems in our relationship with God is solely our responsibility due to our imperfection.

How do we love God properly? It's quite simple actually. Obey him! Easier said than done, right? Jesus told us there is a cost to following Him: leaving behind your former life, putting God and others before yourself and persecution. However, there are rewards also: rest, joy and peace.

Even now, as a pastor, although I strive to love God with everything that I am, I fall short at times. The biggest difference maker for me, though, is having people in my life to encourage me, hold me accountable and pick me up when I fall. Let's strive together to obey God and love him properly.