A gift to Jesus

If you want to give Jesus a gift this Christmas, give Him the gift of obedience to His word.

Obedience is what God asks of us. To me, it is the greatest gift we could give Him and one that He requests.

 Exodus 19:5, Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,

 John 15:14, you are my friends if you do what I command.

 John 14:15, If you love Me, you will obey what I command.

 2 John 1:6, and this is love, that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.

 Luke 11:28, He replied, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.

When we are obedient to God we bring glory to Him, how do we do that? When we; do what He requests, walk as mature Christians in our and understanding of Him, delight in His presence, trust God’s will, take up Jesus’ yoke, and when we walk in the Spirit and put our focus on God rather than in our flesh.

God is also glorified in our good works, when we learn His doctrine which will shed light into our darkness, and when we walk in love. We can also glorify God by being undefiled which means that we strive to abstain from sin and do what He commands.

In the book of Romans and Ephesians Paul tells us that we are save by grace thru faith and not by works (he also states we are created in Christ Jesus for good works; Eph. 2:10). And James tells us 2:18, But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. So to be obedient to God is to have faith and do good works (they come in a variety of ways) and this is pleasing to our Lord.

 Lastly, again I will say, God is glorified in us when we obey His commandments. 3 John 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.  If we walk in disobedience we are walking in the flesh. If we walk in the truth, we are walking in obedience by the power of the Holy Spirit by walking in the Spirit, thus we glorify God bringing honor to Him. We also show love for our Lord by obeying Him.

If we do these things that will be evidence of our becoming Christ-like because we are taking on His character. We are growing, maturing into God’s beloved children. Then we will be in total submission and surrender to Christ as Lord and Savior bringing Him the utmost glory and if it is possible to give a gift to the Creator, an obedient treasured possession! (Exodus 19:5)

December 2018