Skip to main content

Why Do You Do What You Do?



Every Easter season God shows me something personal and meaningful about the familiar story.  This year I was led to focus on the love of Easter.  In doing so I noticed more about the love that led Jesus to embrace His cross.
Being egocentric and as vain as I am, I thought it was for me that He died.  While He was hanging there, He was thinking about how He couldn’t spend eternity without me.   Oh, yes, and I thought He had you on His mind, too.  I could understand the love He has for the whole world.  I knew it was love that held Him—nothing else could hold the One who created the Universe to a shameful cross.
But John 14:31 shed more light on the love that fastened Jesus to the hard wood of the cross.  It was His love for His Father.  John writes:  But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.  Come now; let us leave. 
That was that.  He left the upper room where He had finished the Passover meal with His disciples and headed to the cross via the Garden of Gethsemane.  In the garden, His love for God was strengthened through His authentic prayer asking if there were any other way to redeem the world than by what lay ahead for Him as He embraced His cross.
It was Jesus’ love for God His Father that motivated Him to do the unthinkable.   What powerful love He has for His Father.  It accentuates the love the Father has for me.  I cannot know what the cross meant for God to be separated from the sinless Son that He loved.  He loved the world so much that He sent His only Son to live and die and rise again as the perfect sacrifice so that anyone who believes in Jesus’- and repents of their sins is redeemed and lives eternally with God.
Jesus’ journey to the cross is about His great love for God His Father.  Loving God like that is what leads us to the best way to live in this world.  Living the best way in the world is not to let the devil have a hold over us, but to let our love for God steady us for whatever happens in our lives.  When we have single-minded love for God, we too find the courage to embrace our cross and fulfill God’s purposes for our lives on this earth. 
I want to love God like Jesus loves Him.  I want to surrender to God’s ways.  I want to enjoy God’s presence in my life.  I want to follow His leading.  I want to glorify God every day of my life. 
Copyright © 2015 Deborah R Newman  teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...
2 comments
Read more

The Effects of the Holy Spirit

The Effects of the Holy Spirit               Can you imagine that the very Spirit of God is given to humans who believe in God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection?  Just thinking about the Holy Spirit makes me realize that I can do better.  I am not left to my own resources when it comes to praying, having faith, obeying God, doing what He asks me to do.                 No one understands the depth of sin’s effect on a soul better than God.  Every action He takes has been to reduce the effect of evil that was unleashed into our world when sin was merged into His perfect universe.  We never saw it coming. Even Adam and Eve did not see what hit them.  God has counteracted with the effect of faith after sin by enabling sinners to be affected by His ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Holy Saturday

Nothing is written about the events of Holy Saturday except Luke 23:56, “they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” These few words speak volumes about our life with Christ.   What was it like for these ladies to rest on the Sabbath?   They had watched carefully, they knew how quickly Jesus’ body was laid in the grave. The men had brought spices and linens, but they had little time to properly anoint this most precious of all bodies.   As the women watched carefully, they made mental note of the supplies that would be necessary to complete this sacred act of burial as it should be. They spent the last few hours before sunset to prepare the spices for this holy act of reverence. The Sabbath signaled the time for rest.   I’m sure they didn’t feel like resting, but by complying out of obedience they were probably served by its benefits.   Their minds racing from the horror they had just witnessed, at best they could allow their bodies to rest and ...
Post a Comment
Read more