Tag: focus

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6 Ways to Walk in Love

When I put my faith in Jesus, humbled by His love for me, my life became His. No longer my own, I willingly came under His authority and will. Responding to the love of Jesus naturally results in the desire to obey His commands because we know that they are what’s best for us and for others. He commands His followers to walk in His love: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). It is God’s will that we love one another; in love, amazing things can happen.

Paul wrote, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). What does it mean to walk in God’s love? According to Scripture, walking in love involves both avoiding pitfalls and taking some particular actions. Please note that faith is not based on actions or works (Ephesians 2:8); that is not where I’m coming from with this blog, friends. Scripture gives us specific examples, which I find to be helpful guardrails for everyday life; we have these reference points to correct course if and when needed. While I can’t provide a comprehensive list of Scripture’s examples of walking in love today, I’ll name a few.

Walking in Love: Things to Avoid

  1. Do not speak about sexual immorality or impurity or covetousness (Ephesians 5:3). In Ephesians 5, which speaks to walking in God’s light, Paul calls these things improper, out of place, and taking part in darkness. To speak of these things does not honor Jesus Christ or the place we have as children of God, and as those who inherit His Kingdom. It is not conducive to being a saint, being wise, being thankful, or being people who understand God’s will, filled with the Spirit. “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).
  2. Do not participate in drunkenness (Romans 13:13). Drunkenness is not conducive to walking properly (no pun intended), as in the light of Christ.
  3. Do not participate in quarreling or jealousy (Romans 13:13). Quarreling and jealousy do not make it easier to love people, but can make it much more difficult to do what is best, not only for the other person but also for ourselves. Being jealous of someone else is indicative of taking our eyes off of Jesus, because we want something that is apart from Him and the way He uniquely made us. Paul went so far as to say that coveting (wanting something to an excess that is not ours), is a form of idolatry (Ephesians 5:5).

If I find myself edging closer to any of these things, it is a warning sign for me, that I have taken my focus off of God, and am not walking in love or in the light of Christ. These things are not reasons to self-condemn or live in shame (Romans 8:1), but can be helpful signposts to point us back to Jesus, and to surrender our focus and attention to Him. They are signals to confess the darkness and bring us back to walking in the path of His light.

Walking in Love: Things to Do

2 John chapter 1 names specific evidence of walking in love:

  1. Love one another (verse 5). As in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), loving others means having compassion on people, no matter if they are considered a friend, neighbor, or enemy. Loving others means having mercy toward them, even when it is not convenient or cost-effective for us. This is something that Jesus did perfectly; we have His life to look to as our best example of what it looks like to live a life of loving others.
  2. Confessing the coming of Jesus Christ (verse 7). Acknowledging that Jesus is God the Son, who came in human form with a physical body, in other words, that Jesus is both fully deity and fully human, is important in walking in love. In every age there will be deception and deceivers spreading lies about the deity and/or humanity of Jesus. Walking in love is not to be deceived about who Jesus is (and thus taking our focus off of the Truth); in His love, our spirit confesses that Jesus is exactly who He said He is.
  3. Abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ (verse 9). I have written a bit about this before in Abide in His Love. Abiding in Jesus stems out of the personal relationship Jesus longs to have with each one of us. He wants us to know Him, trust Him, and love Him, and in turn, He gives us the light of life. He even promises “a full reward” (2 John 1:8) to those who love others, walk in His commandments, and abide in His teachings (Matthew 22:36-39).

Focusing on Jesus involves focusing on the things He commands us to do, and on His character. The more we know Him, the more we love Him. The more we love Him, the more we recognize how much He loves us, and how much love He gives us every single day. As we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to abide in His love and obey His commands, may we love God with all we are.

May we remember that Jesus has already and continues to give us more than enough to walk in His love. Amen.

“‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he [Jesus] said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. . . .'” (Matthew 22:36-39).

“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:10-14).

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Ordained Peace

The phrase “rest in peace” is commonly used when someone dies, but what does it look like to live every day in God’s peace? His Word says that God offers us His peace even now, while we are very much alive.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). For me, it is often fear that gets in the way of feeling peace. But as we have talked about in this blog before, feelings can be deceiving. In believing and following Jesus, we are given peace, whether we feel it or not. What a comforting truth! I am still learning how, but the key to living in peace is keeping our minds and hearts on the Truth.

It’s when we allow our thoughts to focus on whatever is scary to us that we can become afraid. Fear can (but not always) imply that we’re not trusting God to take care of it, that we’re not believing that God is bigger than our fear and whatever we’re afraid of. Isaiah wrote, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4). It is our trust in God that anchors us in God’s peace. God promises that when we keep our minds on Him, we are kept in His peace.

So, now that we know that, everything should be just fine to live with a sense of God’s peace all the time, right? Well, I certainly hope that for you, friends, but it hasn’t been quite so easy for me. Life can bring things that are scary to the forefront of my mind. It can be hard to keep my mind “stayed on” God when life gets difficult. But His Word provides Truth and hope in every season, even and perhaps especially in times of lament. When I struggle to keep focused on God, reading Scripture, especially Psalms of lament, can often help to bring my heart to a place of greater peace—reading His Words help me to look at God instead of my fears. When I struggle to focus on God as He tells us to, I try to also remember to simply ask Him to help me. He is faithful to help us obey Him. He is always listening, always for us, and always gracious to give us what we need. That’s who He is (check out the Characteristics of God series for more on that).

God has done everything that we need—Jesus did all the work that was ever and will ever be needed to save us from our sin and death. That includes all the times we don’t obey His will, when we fear instead of trust, when we doubt instead of believe. He has more grace for us. He has provided peace; it is set up for us to have in our lives and our hearts now and always. “O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works” (Isaiah 26:12). This is True, despite whatever life circumstances may come.

May we hold onto the Truth of God-ordained peace, which is divinely appointed for us, forever. Halleluiah!

“He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 25:8).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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A Grateful Heart

Gratefulness is not my default setting. I need to make a conscious decision, and ask for God’s grace to be grateful. But having a grateful heart is one of the best things in life. It opens you up to possibility, it makes God’s work easier to notice in your life, it helps focus you on the Truth, that we have endless reasons to be grateful to God, starting with life itself.

Last week I did something out of obedience to God that required sacrifice. Afterwards, I felt tired and had gotten discouraged. I had obeyed God, but I forgot to be grateful for the opportunity to obey in the first place. Instead, I was focused on all the things that had been uncomfortable about the experience, and had pushed and challenged me. But the Truth is, I can focus on being grateful that I chose to obey the Lord. The tolls of living in the fallen world pale in comparison, and thinking about it in these terms, suddenly makes it easy to realize I would choose it again every time.

Obedience is a direct result of fearing God. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10), essential for a life lived in Christ. Hebrews 12 says, “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:25-29).

This passage warns us to fear God, to obey Him, and implies that the only right response to the kingdom that we live in, that which is eternal and in Christ, is being grateful. From our grateful hearts with the wisdom of His kingdom, our only response is to worship God with a holy fear.

God is bigger than every inconvenience, discomfort, or challenge. He is faithful to us, and His will is for us to obey Him. He helps us to do that whenever we choose it. It’s okay to ask for God’s help to have a grateful heart. Obeying God doesn’t mean life will suddenly be easy. Life is difficult for everyone. But with God’s help, we can be grateful, seeing through new eyes by His grace just how much He has done, is doing, and will continue to do for us. I’ve had to ask for His help doing that this week. It’s been a needed lesson, and maybe you can relate, if not today, then someday. Let’s remember He will help us when we ask! He alone can change our hearts, giving us hearts of gratefulness that please Him; He is faithful.

Thanks be to God!

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Characteristics of God: The Goodness of God

Like the worship song implies, God can and should be praised all day long for His goodness. But do we? I fall short time after time to give God the praise and worship I know He is worthy to receive. I ignore Him, go my own way, and simply disobey far more often than I’d like to admit. My own lack of surrender is heavy on my heart today. I have touched on the topic of goodness in previous posts such as Human Goodness, and The Profound Sufficiency of Christ, but today, God’s goodness is front and center.

Life with God does not mean we will feel happy all the time. It involves feeling the pain of life when God feels far away, when prayers feel blocked, or when the weight of conviction feels suffocating. It’s all part of it. Life with God is not easy. Because of God’s goodness, however, we can still take heart! “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:13-14).

In Psalm 23, David pours out a song to God that ends with the promise of God’s goodness: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Goodness is what comes of walking with God like a sheep with their shepherd. If we’re the sheep, we just don’t do so well when separated from our shepherd. We need God, and when we walk with Him through our lives, we experience His goodness.

Goodness is a characteristic of God. God is the embodiment of goodness; Scripture reveals that throughout history, He seeks and works things out for the best for everyone. He is kind to us when we have been unkind, merciful to us when we haven’t shown mercy, and faithful to us when we haven’t been faithful in our devotion to Him, all because He is so incredibly, miraculously, unfathomably good! He gives us His abundant goodness because that is who He is–loving and generous and faithful to give us many chances to turn to Him and come into agreement with the way He made us and the purpose for His creation. His best for us is realized when we choose Him as our Shepherd. In His great goodness, He wants the best for us. He wants us to be His because being under His care is where we thrive best.

On the days we feel heavy with the weight of our human limitations, it’s often because we’re paying too much attention to ourselves, instead of God. What would happen if we focused on Jesus instead? What good would it do our hearts to imagine Jesus sitting next to us, no words needed, just His eyes looking into ours with His loving goodness, without any condemnation (Romans 8:1)?

He does not want us to sit long in the heaviness of our own shortcomings. He invites us to simply and humbly accept that He paid for it on the cross. What profound goodness is found in this! His blood is sufficient, and our debt is paid. In these days when I glimpse the depths I’ve been saved from, I appreciate His goodness all the more fully and deeply. He is the only place we find refuge from our sin. “But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!” (Psalm 141:8) What a good Father God is, that He is a place of refuge from all the heaviness, shame, and sin that would seek to destroy us.

May we fix our eyes on His goodness, and may we be open to receive the great goodness of God in our lives and hearts today. Amen.


“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all“(Romans 11:32).

“What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?” (Psalm 116:12).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me to continue writing about Life with the King. Grace and peace.

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