I have started reading John Eldredge’s daily devotional book entitled “Restoration Year: Devotions to Transform Your Relationships, Spirit, and Faith.”  One of his devotions really hit home with me.  See if it resonates with you as well.

Romans 6:17 NIV  But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

Eldredge writes:  

“There are traps that over time can replace the simple priority of loving Jesus. Here is a very surprising one—the trap of integrity. What I mean by this is when your attention turns to maintaining personal righteousness. This seems noble and right. Jesus told us to keep his commands. But this can be a trap because most Christians interpret this as “Try harder; do your best.”

“And this is what most Christians experience as the Christian life: try harder; feel worse.

Eldredge continues:

“I find myself slipping back into this weekly. A handful of symptoms tips me off. Exhaustion, for one. I’ll just find myself wrung out again. Or an unnamed internal distress; my insides all twisted up. Discouragement, that old nagging cloud of “I’m totally blowing it” comes back over me. Irritation with needy people. These symptoms—and a host of others—are the collateral damage that results from trying my best.”

And here is where Eldredge makes his key point.  He goes on to point out that these symptoms let him know that he has fallen back into what he calls “the trap of integrity” – of thinking that his obedience to Jesus and His teachings is from the “fountain of [his own] inner strength.”  

Should we give Jesus our very best in living for Him?  Well, it depends on what we mean by that.  If our obedience comes before our love, then no.  If our love for Jesus comes first, and is the motivation and the fuel for our obedience, then yes.

This reminds me of something very important that I learned from studying the following statement by Jesus:

John 14:15 NASB  "If you love Me, you will keep (Greek, tereo) My commandments.

Some translations render the Greek word tereo in this verse as “keep,” and others render it as “obey.”  For some time, the “obey” rendering posed a problem for me.  If this verse means that the way we love Jesus is to obey Him, then it seemed to me that the Christian life is hopeless.  Why?  Because I cannot consistently obey His commandments, so I therefore cannot genuinely love Jesus.  But one day someone shared with me a breakthrough understanding of this Greek word.  Strong’s Greek lexicon gives this definition:  “to guard…by keeping the eye upon.”  Using this understanding, a better rendering of Jesus’ statement is:

 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments before your eyes.”

This is a much more hopeful, helpful (and I believe more accurate) rendering of this statement by Jesus.  For example, I can keep the commandments of Jesus before my eyes by reading the Bible regularly, by pausing to reflect upon it, by memorizing it, by recalling it to my “mind’s eye” throughout the day as I see practical applications in my daily activities, and so forth.

Even with this understanding, Eldredge makes a great point – if our focus is not on our love for Jesus (but is instead on our own self-efforts), then we will slip back into a performance mentality.  After all, 

1 John 4:19 NASB  We love, because He first loved us.

God wants us to surrender our lives to Him, to receive the love of Jesus, and then to merely let the love of Jesus ooze out in our daily interactions with people (and with Him).  As today’s opening verse from Romans 6:17 says, we should “obey from the heart,” motivated by the love of Jesus in our heart, rather than motivated by willpower or duty.

Stated differently, Jesus desires delight, not duty, in our hearts!  Delight in an intimate and growing relationship with Him!

Eldridge ends his devotion with the following prayer.  Will you join me in letting this be the expression of your heart today?

“Jesus—Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light. I give You now every burden of trying to please You. I choose to simply rest in Your love.”

Today, I encourage you to “Reflect on This.”