Truthful Tuesday: I love Jesus, right?

 Have you ever told Jesus that you love Him? Or have you told someone that you love Jesus? I'm sure that the majority of us have said either one or both of those, right? It's so easy for us to say that we love Him, but John 14:15 tells us that saying it is not enough. "If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you." (John 14:15 MSG)
   That scripture should convict each and every one of us. Do we really love Jesus like we say we do? We know for a fact that He loves us because the Bible tells us that He died on a cross just to save us. Not only did He die, but He took brutal beatings for us! He was persecuted just for us!! John 15:13 says "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." Jesus has an intense love for us, but do we love Him the same?
   The devil wants us to believe that we can love God by just saying it and continue to do things that He hates, but I'm here to tell you that's not true! It's not true at all! For the word of the Lord tells us that if we truly love Christ than we will do the things that He tells us to do. Jesus tells us to depart from our wicked ways (2 Chronicles 14:7), but yet we still do drugs, get drunk, love money, etc., BUT we love God! Jesus tells us to love our brothers and sisters (John 13:34), but we still curse out others and hate our family or that girl that looked at you crazy. BUT we love God! Jesus tells us not to let filthy language come out of our mouths (Ephesians 4:29), but yet every other word that comes out of our mouths is a curse word. BUT we love God! Jesus tells us that sex is for marriage (1 Thessalonians 4:3), but yet we're having sex with people that we're not married to. BUT we still love God! There are so many things that Jesus tells us to do and if we do these things then we love Him, but that old stinkin' devil tells us the opposite and we believe him!
   We cannot love Christ and still do things that we know hurts Him. That's selfish and it won't get us into Heaven. John 14:21 says“The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.” If you know that the way you are living is not pleasing to God, but yet you keep living that way, you don't love God. You can't love God and love your sin. And don't say
"God knows my heart" and use that as an excuse to do whatever you want! You're right God knows your heart and He knows that it isn't right towards Him. Do we really love Jesus?? Examine your life and ask yourself that question. Be truthful to yourself and God!! Does your life reflect what you've been saying or is it the complete opposite?

Now let's pray: Father God, I ask right now that you will touch our hearts. Father forgive us for hurting you. God, we repent right now and we declare that we will never hurt you the way we have before. God, we recognize that we cannot love you if we don't obey your commands. God, right now we choose to live for you. We choose to do what's right. We don't want to do what's right because we are forced, but because we choose you over everything. We don't want the drugs, sex, parties, filthy language, homosexual relationships, but we want YOU! Father, accept our prayer. Please hear us and make us new. Create in us clean hearts, Lord. No longer will we say we love you and continue to disobey you. We will now say that we love you and it will show because we will do what you want us to. Have your way in our lives, Lord. Change us and make us whole. We love you for real, Father. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.