SEP 27

1 John 5:2-3
Memorise 1 John 5:3
“he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”

So we know that the commandments were given to us in love, and that it is meant for us as believers to follow. But yet at the same time, we so often feel that it is so very hard to keep! Every single day, it seems that I am just breaking one commandment after another. It feels like a grievous yoke, too heavy to bear, and that I am constantly discouraged by its presence. Dear Teen, is that how you feel sometimes?

If that is the case for you, perhaps you are looking at these commandments the wrong way. Our encouragement comes from the Word of God, which says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). The design of God’s law is not that we should become burdened or weighed down by it. Instead, it should be a blessed and joyous thing to be able to do what God wants us to, and live in a way that is pleasing to Him!

The standards are set high, not so that we get discouraged, but because these are God’s perfect and holy standards. This is not like a high jump competition where the bar is set just low enough for us to clear. No, it is set from the very top, and we are all striving to attain that level of perfection. It is true that we will never be able to keep all the commandments perfectly, but that does not mean we should allow the bar to drop. Instead this teaches us humility that ever more so we must rely on God and not on our own strength.

In times where we sin and break the law, instead of getting discouraged, hating ourselves or even hating the law, we ought to run to the God of love, to confess our sins knowing that He will always lovingly receive us. For together with the promise that the commandments are not grievous, John has also assured us in 1 John 1:9 that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. We may fail time and time again, but if we truly confess our sins, God will surely forgive us. We must never stop trying, but continually press towards the goal that He has set before us, that we be ever increasing in our sanctification, ever improving in our walk with God.

Thought: The law should not discourage, but rather encourage us to strive towards greater levels of obedience to the God whom we love.
Prayer: Lord, help me to aspire to be more and more like You each day.