Loving God means keeping his commandments, and really, that isn't difficult (1 John 5:3, NLT).
Dear
Friends,
The most unhappy people in the world are not the unbelievers, many of whom are ignorantly
and blissfully happy in their sin, albeit temporarily.
The most unhappy people in the world
are Christians who resist the will of God for their lives! The Christian who refuses to do the will of God must be prepared
to pay the price of disobedience. Whatever we sow, we reap, the Bible tells us.
This story
was told by a man who resisted the call to ministry in Sweden. He stubbornly resisted God's will, even through the death of
his wife and daughter. He went into business and prospered, only to be robbed by his own son. In his older years, he languished
with cancer. He said, "I know that I am saved, but, oh, the loss, for I know that I soon will be ushered into His presence
only to give an account of a whole life of disobedience.
Did this man really know Christ? I
am sobered by the Bible's words, "How can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments. If someone says,
'I belong to God,' but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. But those who
obey God's word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him. Those who say they live in God
should live their lives as Christ did" (1 John 2:3-6, NLT).
Whether he was or not, it has long
been my conviction that I have never met a happy disobedient Christian or an unhappy obedient one. It is so true.
R.
A. Torrey, a famous educator and evangelist, tells the story of a woman who came to him and said she did not believe in the
Bible any more. When he asked her why, she replied, "Because I have tried its promises and found them untrue. The Bible says,
'Whatsoever ye ask believing, ye shall receive.' Well, I fully expected to get things from God in prayer, but I did not receive
them, so the promise failed."
Dr. Torrey then turned her to 1 John 3:22: "Whatsoever we ask,
we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." Then he said, "Were
you keeping His commandments and doing those things pleasing in His sight?"
She confessed she
was not.
Her trouble was not that the Bible's promises were not true; it was her own disobedience.
Let that not ever be true of any of us.
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission each
year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
