“Faith never knows where it’s being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”
Oswald Chambers
When I first met Jesus as a fifteen-year-old, my love for Him compelled me to obey Him. Gradually, that love relationship turned more into a dutiful servant who followed rules. Years later the Lover of my Soul wooed me back into a close relationship with Him. I went from feeling like an orphan to relishing and embracing my relationship as His daughter and His bride.
Reading through 2 Chronicles, I came to a halt at chapter 25 verse 2 and pondered what it meant. “And he (Amaziah, King of Judah) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” Amaziah obeyed God yet it was without wholeheartedness. Devotion and loyalty to God, synonyms to describe possessing a whole heart, are important to God. God wants us to obey Him with the right motivation.
Instead of having religious obedience, just to check off a list of rules, God desires us to have relational obedience, having love and devotion be our primary motivators. Do we obey to look good, be well-liked, and to protect our reputation? Or do we obey God because we can’t help it since our love for Him is so great and we’re driven to please the One we love? Is our motivation for obedience to earn God’s favor or because we believe we already have His favor and feel His love and devotion for us? What fuels us to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord: rules or relationship, deeds or devotion, looks or love?
As I sat out on the deck listening to the Father’s voice, I heard Him say these words after I chose to linger in His presence. Your presence, when you sit next to Me with you hand grasping Mine means more to Me than you realize. Choosing Me above a myriad of other things you could be doing speaks volumes of your love for Me and devotion to Me. That is what I look for – a whole heart. Not just faithfulness, but faithfulness for the right reason, out of your love for Me. Let your love for Me be your primary motivation, for why you obey. Your love for Me matters more than what you do for Me. Submission, yieldedness, and your “yes” are important since that’s the avenue through which My will is released. But when those are combined with wholeheartedness, My fire of anointing falls upon those acts.
Let’s have wholeheartedness be our motivation to obey God.
“Man sees your actions, but God your motives.”
Thomas a Kempis
Relevant Reflection:
What is your motivation for doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord?
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