God has a will for our lives, so there is a reason for His commandments. God has provided us with His message, and it is up to us to follow and obey His will. When we fail to follow God’s ways, it doesn’t go well with us at all.There are many Scriptures about listening and obeying. Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). This great promise is tied to the first part of this verse: We must listen and follow.In our desire to listen and follow we see that Jesus said that “love” was the greatest commandment. He cited Deut. 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” He later pointed out to the disciples that His followers would be known by “love” (John 13:35). Our love is for God and for each other—You can’t have one without the other.Our love for God is all encompassing. It encompasses our entire being: Emotion, Intellect, and Spirit. We can’t love with emotion, but forget God or others with our minds. We can’t say we love God on an intellectual level, but live like a heathen without regard to God’s commands. We can’t say we love God or others, but never put any effort into the life to which He calls us. God is love—and He calls us to Love Him—which is a love that He demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus.God is to be more that an occasional part of our lives. He is to be our life. He said, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 6:6-9).God’s Word is to be something that consumes our whole life, at every opportunity and occasion. We are to live out God’s word where ever we go.A frightening verse is ...
