I was sitting in the church few weeks ago and to be honest I don’t remember anything from the sermon. The truth is if you are a church attending person, in your lifetime you will attend thousands of church services and it’s absolutely normal that you will not remember all. You don’t even have to. God uses your church time, your daily ordinary events, and all of your circumstances to personally talk to you and by doing so he is transforming you one step at a time.

But while you will listen to thousands of sermons and you will forget many of them, I find it amusing that I never forget when God talks to me personally. I can recall every time God talked to me: tell you exactly what I did, what he told me, and the impact it had on my life. Whether God talks to me at church through a pastor, a song, a book, a dream or just simply when I don’t even expect it, those moments and words all are imprinted in my mind forever. I treasure these sentences more than anything in my life. God, the God of the universe talks to me, little me – personally.

So going back to the Sunday, I remember the pastor asking: “Do you love Jesus?” And of course in was a grooming yes in the room - well we are in the church setting - of course we love Jesus. But then the next question came: “Do you obey him?” and after this I can’t remember the sermon anymore because God, started to talk to me personally.

True followers of Christ are easily discerned by their obedience to God the Father.

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.~  John 14:21

Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. ~ Exodus 19:5

And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. ~ 1 John 3:22

To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, To them I will give authority over all the nations. ~ Revelation 2:26

Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. ~ Revelation 3:10

Your life reveals who and what you really love, but whom and what you obey and follow. Believing in God is NOT ENOUGH.

You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. ~ James 2:19

You know many people believe in God. Which God? For some- their God is their money, their own image, their kids, their own physical body, their possessions. There are many so called gods. And there are many who believe or they thing they believe in the one true God, but do they really?

Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. ~ Matthew 7:21

The question is this: Do you love Jesus? Do you obey him?

You know – most of you have been crazily in love, fallen in love with someone deeply -  when you love someone, when you are in love with someone, you will do everything to please them and you listen to them and jump to fill their wants, because you love them.

Jesus makes it really simple: I died for you. I gave my life for you. I gave up everything to save you, because I LOVE YOU. Until you don’t fall in love with Jesus it will be hard to obey him. To obey anyone is not easy, and often is impossible. Obeying someone is a burden, if is not out of love.

I didn’t work for me either for years. Obeying God was some kind of rules and regulations game. It was kind of if I don’t want to go to heaven then I better follow the rules of the Bible. It was hard and failed every time I decided to obey the rules. Until one day, through the power of the Holy Spirit I realized the love God had for me, I accepted my forgiveness,  I accepted the extended love and God filled me with his abundant love and when I realized how much God loves me, I fell in love with Jesus … Now, I WANT to obey him. I want to make him proud of me. I want him to say: she brings me joy.

Do I always obey him? No, sometimes I still fail but my heart changed and my attitude changed and when I realize I missed to obey him, I apologize and it hurts me too. But day-by-day I ask God to give me a willing heart, an obedient heart and the strength needed to obey him, to do his will, to give me a desire to please him over and above anything else. It’s so natural and we often want to be accepted and for that reason we want to please people. But pleasing people might really go against God’s will. It’s not easy to stand for God, but it’s worth it.

Jesus says: If you love me, then you will obey me! Wow! That is really powerful! You can tell Jesus that you love Him all day long, but if you do not obey Him, then your words mean nothing. Jesus ultimately wants us to obey Him for two reasons. First - for His glory and second - for our Joy. Jesus specifically tells us that He is telling us these things so that our Joy may be full! Jesus wants our best and we will never live at our fullest if we don’t obey him.

Question: Do you love Jesus? Do you obey him? Do you find it easy to obey God? What are the circumstances when you find it hard to obey God? Can you name few events when you know you obeyed God? How about when you didn’t?  Do you have the tendency to easily give up God just to please people?

Your Question might be: How to obey God practically in our everyday life? … I promise I will come back to this later.

If you read this and God is telling you something please comment. You can comment with a nick name or just put Annon, it will help me know that what I write might matter. Your questions and suggestions are always welcome too.