If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands. —John 14:15

In the verse for today, Jesus says we demonstrate our love for Him by obedience to what He says. Whenever I think about hearing from God, I keep coming back to the fact that we won’t hear Him clearly if we are not obeying Him in what we already know to do. Without obedience we have a guilty conscience. As long as we have that guilty con-science, we cannot have faith and confidence (see 1 John 3:20–24).

The goals of a Christian should be quite different from the goals of a nonbeliever. Those who are not serving God want money, position, power, and things, but as Christians our primary goal should be to obey and glorify God. I went to church for many years without giving a great deal of thought to obeying God. I was following a religious formula hoping that would make me acceptable to God, but I had not made a full commitment to be guided daily by His principles.

Open your entire life to God and invite the Holy Spirit as your Teacher in life. Do your best to obey His directions, and when you fail, ask for forgiveness and begin again. Don’t waste time and energy feeling guilty, because in Christ we can always have a new beginning. Pray about obedience, study it, and actively pursue it every day. In this way, we demonstrate our love for God.

God’s word for you today: No matter how hard we try not to, we all make mistakes, but as long as we refuse to give up we will reach our goals.

by Joyce Meyer