keep my commands.

God rocked my world through this verse in John over 25 years ago.

I always said I loved Jesus.  I had loved Jesus my entire life.

But was I keeping his commands?

Jesus wasn’t talking to me about all of the laws in the Old Testament or the 10 commandments.  He was pointing out his first and greatest command – to love God with all of my heart, mind, soul and strength.  And the second great command – to love others as I love myself.

I wasn’t doing great at putting God first in my life at that time.  Two active kids, a husband, a career that involved significant travel, a house, 2 cars, family, friends, going to church where I was a member of the choir – my calendar was stretched to a superhuman level already.  I didn’t see any slot where I could fit in more time with God.

But the Holy Spirit was persistent, convicting me BIG TIME that I needed to stop just saying I loved Jesus and start showing it by obeying his first and greatest command.

So I gave up some things, lowered my expectations of other things (like how clean my house was) and re-prioritized.  I got serious about Bible study – both on my own and with a small group – and started to put God first in my life.  One baby step at a time.

And a miracle happened!  Everything started to go better, run smoother, be more fun!  I realized that God wanted me to put him first so he could help me with everything else!  He wanted to help me be a better wife, a better mother ( he gets the credit for my 2 intelligent, mature and responsible grown children), a better employee, a better everything!

He put the pieces of my life together so that they made a great picture.   Before, the pieces just seemed to pile on top of each other – making me crazy……making me feel empty……making me unhappy.  God made sense of it and brought real joy back into my life.

Loving him first made me whole.

The a whole me was much better prepared to deal positively with the rest of my life – as long as I kept God at the center.

Six words changed it all!

Amazing!

I love you, dear Father!