“I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgements” (Psalm 119:106).
“Labor earnestly in prayer to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Ask earnestly for the discovery of every secret sin—of anything that is not in perfect harmony with the will of God. Walk up to the light you have faithfully and tenderly, yielding yourself in an unreserved surrender to obey all that the Lord has spoken…. The New Covenant gives the grace to make the vow and to keep it too (Jeremiah 31). Be careful of disobedience, even in little things. Disobedience dulls the conscience, darkens the soul, deadens our spiritual energies—therefore keep the commandments of Christ with implicit obedience. Be a soldier who asks for nothing but the orders of the commander. And if even for a moment the commandments appear tedious, just remember whose they are. They are the commandments of Him who loves you. They are all love, they come from His love, and they lead to His love. Each new surrender to keep the commandments, each new sacrifice in keeping them, leads to deeper union with the will, the Spirit, and the love of the Savior.” Andrew Murray from Abide in Christ
Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:21 ESV
Manifest, from the original Greek word used in John 14, means “To make apparent, cause to be seen, to show…to manifest oneself meaning to let oneself be intimately known and understood.”
Our obedience leads to the manifestation of Jesus Himself.
We all want those results. Whether we can clearly articulate it or not, we all want Jesus’ closeness and nearness and for His life and light to show in and through our lives to positively effect others and make them long for Him too. We want Him to be made manifest in our lives to this dark and hurting world.
But I think that we have underestimated the importance, the need, and the power of our OBEDIENCE to have this life that we want.
Jesus asked, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46
Obedience is serious business. It is not about what we say we believe; it’s what we show by our actions that we truly believe, by doing what He says, which flows out of our thankful heart.
That passage continues, “..the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:49
Manifest Jesus and not shaken (Luke 6:48) or great ruin? Which are you choosing today?
This week would you join me and pray and ponder this concept? Is there anything that we are allowing in our lives that is not in perfect harmony with the will of God for us? Are we being careful about obedience and disobedience?
Lord, moment by moment show us exactly what You are calling us to, and as much as we understand what You are saying, we choose to be obedient. You have graciously enabled us to do this. You have given us all that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). So we choose to “walk in a manner worthy” (Eph. 4:1, Col. 1:10, 1 Thess. 2:12) and to love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), having that love shown through our obedience (the message of the book of 1 John). And then we ask that You do what You do: manifest Yourself in and through our lives. Make us to know You deeper and more intimately. We invite You to have Your way, and where we have not obeyed and not shown our love for You, the love that You deserve, we confess it as sin. You deserve our all, Lord. We bow before You, the Lord our God and Maker and say, “Have your way. Jesus. Have your way.”
Hi Friends,
We stared reading Exodus today. If you still need a reading plan, here’s a link to a chronological Bible reading plan. It truly is amazing how checking off a box (or filling in a circle) helps with accountability. Try it!
If you missed this news last week, I had the honor of being on Kohlie Browning’s Still With You podcast and launching her second season. Here is the link. “Episode 24: Treasuring God’s Word with Traci Shinnick” from Still With You by Kohlie Browning on Apple Podcasts You can also listen on Spotify by searching for the podcast Still With You by Kohlie Browning. And share with someone.
And Baby Stuva was looking good and showing off for her appointment yesterday! All good news. Thank you for your prayer and keep them coming. We appreciate you all so much! (If you don’t understand why this is awesome news, I shared this news at the end of my last post).
Talk to you next week! I love hearing from you. Send me an email. Leave a comment on the website. Let me know how you are doing! What is God saying to you? I’d love to hear!
With love,
Traci
