May 5, 2024 8:00 pm
During our wedding ceremony, our minister said to me, “Do you promise to love, honor, and obey your husband, until death do you part?” Glancing at my fiancé, I whispered, “Obey?” We’d built our relationship on love and respect—not blind obedience, as the vows seemed to suggest. My husband’s father captured on film the wide-eyed moment I processed the word obey and said, “I do.”
Over the years, God has shown me that my resistance to the word obey had nothing to do with the incredibly complex relationship between a husband and wife. I’d understood obey to mean “subjugated” or “forced submission,” which Scripture doesn’t support. Rather, the word obey in the Bible expresses the many ways we can love God. As my husband and I celebrate thirty years of marriage, through the power of the Holy Spirit we’re still learning to love Jesus and each other.
When Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15 nlt), He showed us that obedience to His Word would be the result of an ongoing loving and intimate relationship with Him (vv. 16-21).
Jesus’ love is selfless, unconditional, and never forceful or abusive. As we follow and honor Him in all our relationships, the Holy Spirit can help us see obedience to His Word as a wise and loving act of trust and worship.
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Hello, my name is Xochitl Dixit. I'm sharing a personal story in today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread, Loving Obedience. During our wedding ceremony, our minister said to me, Do you promise to love, honor, and obey your husband until death do you part? Glancing at my fiancée, I whispered, Obey?
We'd built our relationship on love and respect, not blind obedience, as the vows seemed to suggest. My husband's father captured on film that wide-eyed moment when I processed the word obey and said, I do. Over the years, God has shown me that my resistance to the word obey had nothing to do with the incredibly complex relationship between a husband and wife. I'd understood obey to mean subjugated or forced submission, which Scripture doesn't support. Rather, the word obey in the Bible expresses the many ways we can love God. As my husband and I celebrate 30 years of marriage through the power of the Holy Spirit, we're still learning to love Jesus and each other. When Jesus said, If you love me, obey my commandments, in John 14, He showed us that obedience to the Scriptures would be the result of an ongoing loving and intimate relationship with Him. Jesus' love is selfless, unconditional, and never forceful or abusive. As we follow and honor Him in our relationships, the Holy Spirit can help us see obedience to Him as a wise and loving act of trust and worship. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from John chapter 14, verses 15 to 21. If you love me, keep my commands, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me because I live.
You also will live. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 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. Let's pray. Jesus, please help us express our love and worship to you through obedience to the scriptures so that our lives and our relationships will be fragrant with the fruit of your love flowing in and through us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-05-05 20:06:39 / 2024-05-05 20:08:08 / 1
