John 14 Devotional

John 14:21 "The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that's who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him."

Application: How do you know if someone loves you? In one word it is Sacrifice. The Bible says, “There is no greater love than this: that a man would lay down his life for a friend.” You see if someone loves you, they will put your needs or desires ahead of their own. Now, I am not saying the only way you can be sure someone loves you is if they sacrifice their life for yours. What I am saying is if someone loves you, they will do their best even at the expense of their own comfort to meet your desires. You see if you are unsure if someone cares about you, look harder and ask this question, is anyone meeting any of my needs at the expense of their own comfort? I think you will find at least one person who is. Now let me pose this question to you; are you putting the desires of others above your own, or let me say it like this, do you love anyone? I hope you can say yes to this question because to be honest everyone cannot say yes to it. Some people love themselves so much they don’t even think to put the needs of others above their own. We normally call people like that selfish!! Well let’s keep on thinking! Let me ask you this, do you love God? Are you meeting any of His needs or desires? You may ask how is it that a God who has everything can have a need or a desire. And, I would answer that by saying theologically God doesn’t have any needs because he is all sufficient, which means he lacks nothing. But, because of His great wisdom, He has allowed those who love Him to have the capability to give Him pleasure or meet a desire He has! How do we give God pleasure? We do it by allowing God to use us to bring people to salvation in Him? Or to put it plainly, God loves the world and wants everyone to be saved in it. (John 3:16). And, He wants us to help Him do it. Listen, when people get saved God starts shouting! Zephaniah 3:17 explains God’s response to people’s salvation. It says "…He will exult over you with joy…He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” Therefore, if you want to make God happy, help lead people to Christ! Do you remember what you went through before you believed in Jesus? Did anyone play a role in that process? If so, what did they do? Ok. Look at your saved friends. What did they go through before they believed in Jesus? Did anyone play a significant role in their salvation? You see, it is difficult to know what someone will have to go through before they believe in Jesus. That is why you must be willing at all times to obey God’s commandments! Why? Because different people may require different circumstances before they believe in Jesus. For some people God may tell us just to pray for them. But, for others God may tell us to give them something that we value. There are many possibilities. I think this is why Jesus said, "The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that's who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him." You see if we obey God, we will make Him very happy because our obedience leads to people coming closer to Him. Additionally, our obedience to God helps fulfill a desire he has that results in more intimacy with Jesus for us. Does that make sense? Don’t you get closer to the people who know how to make you feel good? When people get saved God feels great! And, if you had a part in it, that makes Him want to get a little bit closer with you. Friend, if we want to deepen our relationship with God or show our love for Jesus, we must obey His commandments. There is no question that God loves you, but the question you must answer is do you love Him? Well, do you?

Three action steps:

1. Take the time to memorize John 14: 21

2. Do you love God? How do you show Him you do?

3. Go to Matthew 5 – 7 write down all of Jesus commands and post them in a place your entire family can see them.