Day 225/260: Read John 15

Jesus makes clear to His apostles that there is a direct connection between their love for Him and their obedience to His commands. One must deny himself and bend his will to align with the will of God.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” That is to say that their desires will align more with God’s will as they abide in the words of Christ.

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” There is simply no separating a love for God from submission to Him. One who refuses to obey God’s commands —including the command to love one another—shows by his actions that he doesn’t really love God.

Jesus wanted His disciples to know that loving Him would result in hatred from the world. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Are you obedient to the Lord’s commands? Do you really love Jesus? Or are you hanging on to the love of the world, refusing to fully submit to the will of God?

Memory (Recite to a friend without looking)

John 12:48. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

Pray

Pray for the humility to shape your desires after the will of God.