Keeping God's Commands

When Jesus prays before heading to the cross, he shows us the kind of relationship he was securing for us with his death. Jesus’s relationship with God as he prays to his Father is a foreshadowing of what he was accomplishing for us on the cross. Without Jesus, we are separated from God, alone, trapped in our sin. Without Jesus, we don’t get to enjoy free access to our Father whenever we want and need.  But because Jesus prayed to his Father and submitted himself to God’s will, he willingly went to the cross to secure our salvation. He was separated from God so that we could be reconciled. He was cut off from the Father so that we could enjoy free access to Him whenever we want. The Son of God died so that we could become sons and daughters of the King. Because of the cross, we get to pray the same way that Jesus did in John 17. We get to pray to God as our loving Father who wants to hear from us. He is a Father who wants to spend time with us and desires deep connection with us. He isn’t waiting for us to pray so that he can reprimand us or demand something of us. He isn’t going to remind us of the ways we have failed. He will simply pour out his love and grace on us as his beloved children. He is exactly who we need in our times of crisis. Reflection/Discussion Questions: How do you pray to God? Do you pray to him like he is your Father?

Sometimes we can get in the bad habit of viewing the church as something that is for us, instead of viewing it as something that we are for. We live as if the church exists to meet our needs instead of us being the church to meet the needs of others.  We can hop from church to church to decide what style of preaching feeds us without ever investing our lives in the mission of the church. We identify with denominations, different theology, political ideologies, and well-known Christians more than we do with Christ himself. Our churches are filled with consumers who are sitting comfortably in their chairs, viewing the church as an “a la carte” menu where we can pick and choose what serves us, without investing our lives in the Body of Christ. This is not how God calls us to live. Jesus wasn’t crucified so that we could dress up on Sunday, sit in our comfortable seats, judge the sermon, and then go out to brunch. He didn’t raise to life so that we would live a comfortable and convenient life. Jesus died and broke the grave so that we would come together as the church, passionate about and committed to the mission of growing the Kingdom of God.  God gave us each a specific role in the Body of Christ to accomplish his mission of advancing his Kingdom. If we forsake our role in the mission for the sake of comfort, the entire Body of Christ suffers. No one else was made to do your role in the Body of Christ, so your work will be left undone. But when we commit to be the church and join Jesus in his mission of making disciples of all nations, we will find that a committed life is exactly the adventure we were made for. Reflection/Discussion Question: In what ways do you find yourself choosing comfort over commitment as you follow Christ?