S241P5 – That which love seeks: obedience to truth

2 Jn. 1:4-6

I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father.  And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.  This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.  This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

I find it fascinating that God spent so much time showing me the deception in my life well before I ever asked him to do so.  I can recall sleepless nights during which I contemplated my life and my lifestyle with so many questions about whether I was living as I should be.  The prompting for such thoughts was not simply unhappiness with life or disappointment in myself.  I had a feeling inside me telling me that something about this existence was simply not true and not right.  I felt as though I was walking in deception, but I had no idea what that even meant.  It just seemed like I could not see anything clearly.

We cannot have obedience to God without an awakening to his truth.  This idea of our submitting to him is all about accepting what He says at face value and living according to that word.  It is the love of God which desires to pull us up out of the shadowy deception of this world and to allow us to see how things really are.  I did not feel like I was seeking after God’s truth at all during those years, but He was sure to give me small revelation after small revelation.  When I see the transformation that his truth has brought to my life now, I can only desire for others to be transformed by that truth as well.  We can help them not only by speaking that truth but by living according to it.

God’s love desires our submission and obedience to truth because that is what is good for us.  He might have some secrets which are hidden now, but his desire is that all things would be revealed to us in time.  He is a God of transparency and revelation.  His love desires that his precepts would be known and practiced as a way to honor him and change us.  Our obedience to his truth should be in word and in deed because the proof of our faith is how we live and act based on what we believe.  To know the truth and speak the truth is insufficient if we do not live according to it.  Father, show us where we still need growth in this area, that the way we live our lives would reveal your truth to others.