The Secret To A Blessed Life Is No Secret At All

There are no conditions on God`s love but there are conditions on his blessings. Sometimes we are too free and easy with God`s grace and become abusers of God`s love believing there to be no consequences. Such behaviour will never stop him from loving us but it will block up the flow of his blessings. We are a silly people living in shadows instead of in the reality of the full measure of all that he desires to pour out upon us. He has called us blessed but we prevent the blessings. Jesus said:

"If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15)

Every parent desires to give every good thing to their child. If they have the means they will bless that child again and again but if the child is rebellious and disobedient they are blocked from blessing them. Such blessings could spoil them even further, causing more harm than good. Such disobedience sours the relationship, making life difficult in the family and putting an unnecessary stress on the parents. All their time is taken up with correcting and resolving the difficulties so there is no time for the blessings.

Obedience is a sign of good character in any child but especially in a child of God. As Jesus put it, it is a sign of love. Jesus did not ask for obedience born in a vacuum but instead in a relationship of love. Such love births trust; trust and love go hand in hand giving birth to obedience. We can't say that we love Jesus and then refuse to obey him. We can't love the idea of God and ignore the substance. Our every waking moment should be filled with the desire to walk in obedience to God's law of love. The apostle Paul put it this way:

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

You say you love your parents but do you do right by them? You say that you love Jesus but do you show it beyond words? God warned the Israelites, before he blessed them with the Promised Land, that this continued blessing required obedience because without obedience they would lose the blessing. The strange thing is that all the law could be summed up with one simple thing: love God with your entire being. Really God was only interested in their heart condition as he is today.

Many of us live in a spiritual shadow world, building a new gospel to explain away the lack of blessing. The fact is that our God loves us and desires to fulfill all the promises he has given to us but our rebellious hearts are blocking him. His love is not conditional but the promises are so let's throw off this rebellious nature and walk in the power of Jesus Christ to be an obedient nation. It is not obedience to a list of do's and don'ts but instead to the law of love, from which everything else springs. Disobedience is a result of rebellion against that love. Let's choose love and a life of God's ever flowing blessings.