March 15, 2022 - John 14:15

“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15 NLT

Lord, we thank you for love and how it works. It is such a beautiful emotion, and yet it is so much more than just an emotion. We thank you for this wonderful gift that you have given us. We thank you that when we truly love someone with a pure love, we long to serve them. We want to do things to please them and make life easier for them. We don’t want to do anything that would cause them hurt or pain. Just the opposite actually, we want to bless them and bring them happiness.

Lord, it is the same with you. The deeper we fall in love with you the more we want to serve you and bless you. We don’t want to cause you pain, but we long to do what will bring you pleasure. We want to obey you. Lord, I know there have been seasons in my life where I have had to really work at walking in obedience to all you asked me. Then there are other seasons where it comes so easily. As I analyze those seasons, I can see that the times that it was easiest to follow after you were the times that I was walking the closest to you and was in the most love for you. The seasons it was the hardest were the seasons where I had allowed maintaining a strong relationship with you to fall to a lower priority in my life. I had allowed myself to drift from a passionate love and in doing so, my walk with you became more of an effort.

Lord, help us learn to keep the flames of passion burning hot for you. Teach us how to press into you and carve out time to spend with you even in the busy or dry seasons. When we do that, everything really is less of an effort and flows naturally out of us. When we really are fully in love with you this verse becomes an easy thing to walk out. Thank you for how you make this work. Give us such a great desire to press into a deeper relationship with you. Jesus, you are so worth it.

In Jesus name, amen.