Something was always missing from my life.  Not that I didn’t have a good family, good education, even good Biblically-based instruction.  But I always knew something was missing, and I felt a compelling emptiness and lack of purpose that I did not know how to fill.

I knew enough about the Bible to know that my peace and joy are promised as gifts from God.  I knew that true purpose and meaning could only be found in serving God.  So I tried.  I truly expected that my faith would ultimately bring about the full promises of peace, joy, completeness in God.  But it never came… until the past year.

What changed?  I began living my life differently.  I started to realize how consistently God calls us to act as if we really love others like we love ourselves.  I began trying to do that out of obedience.  Read John 14 and 15.  Depending how you count, there are 4 to 8 times in just two chapters where Jesus stresses that we must follow his commandments.  But there are so many… which ones? How? Is it the Law again?  God is good, and He knows that we aren’t too bright (at least I’m not).  So He does not leave us in doubt.  After stressing over and over that we must follow His commandments, He gives us a direct answer to the questions He knew we’d have.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  - John 15:12

Sounds a lot like loving our neighbor as ourselves, like living a life that gives tirelessly of our time, our energy, our all – to serve those who are broken, needy, the outcasts of society.  Isn’t that what Jesus’ love looked like?

John 15:12 is preceded in verse 11 by: “These things I have spoken to you that that My joy may remain in you, that your joy may be full.”  It is so clear to me now.  I do have to rely on God and His grace to provide for me through faith.  But as we’re told in the book of James, faith without works is dead.  He provides what I was missing by grace – my works can never do that.  But my faith was dead, and began bearing fruit in my life only when I first followed His commands.

PS.  Did I say “read John 14 and 15”?  Please do.  Really, really good stuff in there.

Well, Jim, if you aren’t too bright, then the rest of us don’t stand a chance.  )
Seriously, though, I feel the same.  I feel like I have finally discovered God’s purpose in my life when I finally began to grasp ‘compassionate living’.  I’m not there yet and have a lot to learn. Unfortunately I am limited in all I’d like to do by my own resources.  How good to know we serve a God whose resources are unlimited and His blessings are overwhelming when we serve Him in this way.

Reading John 14 and 15 tonight before bed…..

Kathy