Message Minute
Your Message Minute with Pastor Chris Byars
John 14:15
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“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
John 14:15, LSB
What an invitation! Jesus is calling and His words speak volumes, but here is a challenge for the hearer, “If you love me.” How much do we love Jesus? We say it, but do we weigh the cost? What does it mean to keep His commandments? This we struggle with in our daily lives as we fail and fall short. How do we keep His commandments? What about the thoughts that enter our heads? We can wrack our brains trying to work this through and if we listen to some who desire to make this a legalistic call to daily living. Yet, the words ring out in our ears and the Lord wrings us out in the waters of Baptism. If these words cause us to seek to live a better life and let go of things daily, we will find that our love of God begins to reflect outwardly. The things that were once troubling may diminish and things that were not but should have been troubling become less attractive. Our neighbors may begin to look differently to us. Sometimes the things our Lord calls us to are simpler than we may think. Can it be that easy? In love, we turn ourselves over to Him and let Him be the sculptor. It is a marriage, and we are His bride as He prepares us and shapes the patterns of our lives and our heartbeats become one with Him. This is His calling as we receive His love and return our own. It is here we find His peace.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.