Scripture: John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
Devotion: Do you ever feel as though “normal” isn’t working? Try as you might, you just don’t feel like you quite fit in with the culture around you. You may long to look like everyone else, to just be included and accepted. However, you find that there is a greater and greater gap between you and the rest of the mainstream world. And that is because, as Christians, we aren’t called to be “normal.” We are called to live differently and stand out.
Pastor and theologian John Stott put it this way, “No comment could be more hurtful to the Christian than the words, ‘But you are no different from anybody else.’ For the essential theme of the whole Bible from beginning to end is that God’s historical purpose is to call out a people for himself; that this people is a ‘holy’ people, set apart from the world to belong to him and to obey him; and that its vocation is to be true to its identity, that is, to be ‘holy’ or ‘different’ in all its outlook and behaviour.”
Part of looking different than the world is understanding that our belonging to the Lord will cause us to look different. But we don’t obey God for merely the sake of obedience. We obey out of an abundance of love for God and a heart that desires to look more like him. If we just try by our own might to obey the Lord, we will fall short time and time again. Eventually, the glitter will wear off and we will start looking more like the world again.
But when the posture of heart is to glorify God and allow Him to shape us into His likeness, we have a deeper desire than outward obedience. That desire, along with an abundance of grace and forgiveness from the Lord, will keep us going in our pursuit of holiness and obedience in this life. That will cause us to look much different than the world, but more and more like our Savior.
Reflect:
- Do you wrestle with the desire to fit in?
- Reflect on why you feel called to obey the Lord. Is it out of feeling of obligation? Gratitude? Fear? Love? How can you shift your perspective on it if you need to?
