TAKING A LOOK AT 1 JOHN

 “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”- 1 John 5:3-5 New Living Translation

            John’s first statement here says it all. Living life as Christ would have us live, imitating him, would only be burdensome to those who strain at the leash wanting to live their own life. We aren’t slaves or robots; we are willing participants in the life Christ has plotted out for those who love him. We can do as we please, God gave us that right, but can we say with assuredness that our path is better than the one laid out for us by the Creator of all things? 

            Man seeks to be autonomous, but running your own show thinking you need no ones help is a mistake. There are spiritual forces at work seeking to trip you up. Without the Lord directing life becomes much more difficult than it has to be. Christ never promised that obeying him would be easy, but it is no burden for those who love him.¹If the burden starts to become too heavy for us we can trust that Christ will help us bear it. Satan will do all he can to make things more difficult for us, but God remains in control and we will not be given more than we can bear, in spite of we may feel.

            Living the way God has intended us to live involves two elements that are not in the mind and heart of the unbeliever, they being faith and trust. Trust grows out of our faith. If our faith is weak, our trust will be weak as well. They go hand in hand. You’re not going to trust something or someone you have little or no faith in. We must go about bolstering our faith daily by feeding our spirit man / woman with food from God, whether it be his Word, faith-based books, movies or music, or a trusted preacher, just to name a few. Feed voraciously on that which will build up your faith and subsequently your trust, not drag it down. Those of us that win in the end are those who believe in and love Christ and follow him closely. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible.

¹ Matthew 11:28-30 New Living Translation 

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”