This isn't that hard...

"...and His commandments are not burdensome."--1 John 5:3.  This is the second part of this verse.  Right before comes the fact that if we love God, we will keep His commandments and the broader context deals how if we love God we will love one another. But this verse tells us His commandments are not burdensome. Tonight, I would like you to join me as we explore this idea of God's commandments not being burdensome. Essentially what this verse is saying is that following God's commands, well, this isn't that hard.

This isn't that hard.  Being a Christian.  I think we would all agree it's not particularly easy by any stretch of the imagination.  However, I think we make it harder than it needs to be, myself included.  Let's be honest with ourselves here, what God asks us to do is pretty simple. In this context, loving others? Easy.  Get baptized? Easy. Tell others about the gospel message? Easy.  Teach? Easy. Please don't get me wrong, doing these and other things does require work and preparation, some of them more than others.  However, we make it harder than it needs to be. Doing this requires our initiative to do them. This isn't that hard.

This isn't that hard.  Why? Because the difficulty is more in making the decision to take the initiative.  Returning to my examples. What stops us from loving others? Here are some classic excuses, "He/she is mean to me" or "He/she offended me in some way so I don't want to love that person." Have we forgotten that we offended God with our heinous sins yet He loved us enough to send His Son to die on the cross for those sins? What stops a person from getting baptized when they already understand the purpose and the commitment involved? Could be any number of things, pride or they think they have more time and don't think it would hurt to put baptism off for another day are just a couple of examples. Truth is if one hasn't been baptized, he/she cannot afford to lose that time. Teaching others the gospel? Well pride, fear, or worse apathy gets in the way here most of the time. And teaching? Well fear is one thing that stops a person but here is my "favorite" excuse when someone does not want to teach, "I don't feel called to teach" WHAT?! Isn't this what we are commanded to do?!?! ALL OF US! Matthew 28:19-20 is proof of that.  This isn't that hard.

This isn't that hard.  So I leave you with this, think of the examples I just gave or think of some other area of your responsibility to God where you struggle in overcoming whatever it is that is stopping you from fulfilling that responsibility. Did I mention that was responsibility to GOD? Whatever it is, pride, fear, discomfort, the assumption that you have more time, my encouragement to you tonight is to give God control of whatever it is that stopping you from, again for example, loving someone.  Let go of whatever is stopping you from being baptized. Let go of whatever it is that is stopping you from teaching others the gospel message.  :Let go of whatever it is that is stopping you from teaching a Bible class, doing a devotional or better yet preaching a sermon.  Why? Because this isn't that hard. And remember loving God means keeping His commandments. This isn't that hard.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!  Comment, click on the highlighted links or email me at davidmalleyg@gmail.com if you have any more questions or comments!