Do What Your Father Tells You

“The wise in heart will receive commandments. (Proverbs 10:8a)
A godly man follows God’s commandments and understands that His Word is a boundary of protection to keep him from harm. He has a desire to please Jesus and honor Him above all else. The question is: do we love Jesus in word only, or do we love Him enough to do what He says, even though it may be difficult? Jesus said: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21) If we love God, we will follow His commandments and love them. “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.” (Psalms 119:47) We love His commandments because we believe them (Psalms 119:66), and since we believe them, we long for them. (Psalms 119:131) Whether we admitted it or not, we longed for rules, discipline and consequences for disobedience when we were boys. Children, who have no discipline or little at all, will constantly test the limits of their parents in order to define where the boundaries are. God knows this reality and has given us His parameters for godly living. In my neighborhood, there was one boy that all the kids refused to play with. He was a nice enough kid, but when you played a game with him, he always changed the rules to suit his purposes. I am so grateful that God is not like that. He has given us His Word, and He will never change the rules on us in the middle of the game. He can be trusted, for He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:6)