Loving Jesus Is One Thing, Living for Him Is Another

Do you love Jesus but struggle to fully live for Him?

Many believers genuinely love God, yet still wrestle with surrender, obedience, consistency, and what it truly means to make Him the center of everyday life.

In this episode, we talk about the difference between loving Jesus and living for Him, what it looks like, why it matters, and how to take the next step in your walk with God.

My prayer is that this episode brings you closer to Him, gives you clarity, and encourages deeper faith.

Love you all and praying for you 🤍

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Janelle and Jesus. I am Janelle, and if you are new here, welcome. I am so excited to have you. Basically, what this channel is is an open space where we get to talk about real life topics of what the Christian walk looks like, how to walk through hard seasons of life, and some questions we may have that we're kind of scared to ask in public areas and in churches, um, or even just struggles that we're kind of feeling isolated within or talking about is a little bit uncomfortable. Um, I just want to create that space that we're able to just really let it all out there, be real and vulnerable, because the Christian walk is not an easy walk and it's harder if we do it alone. So I don't want to do it alone, and I don't want you to do it alone either. I've been through my fair share of stuff. I hope to bring other people along that is able to share their story, but for right now, let's just dive right in. Let's get real, let's get raw, and let's talk about the Lord. If you clicked on this video, I'm sure you already know what the topic is because it's in the title, but I want to talk a little bit about what it means to love the Lord versus live for the Lord. Um, if you know anything about me, or if you watched my previous video, I mentioned I have been a Christian my whole life. I have always loved the Lord. Ever since I was a little girl, I got baptized when I was in fifth grade. Fifth or sixth grade. No, I think it was sixth grade. Details. Um, but I've always loved the Lord. I've always had just a desire for Him and a love for His character and who He is. But living for the Lord is where really everything shifted for me. Everything kind of started to fall into place, and I think spiritual maturity started to happen, and and everything just made sense. I started to read the word more, and it just everything would start to click a little bit clearer, right? So let's first talk about what it what does it mean to love the Lord, right? Loving the Lord looks like talking about him, it looks like reading about him, it looks like seeking him, looks like going to church on Sundays, and being excited for church on Sundays. Um, that's all loving the Lord, and those are not incorrect things. Don't mishear what I'm saying, those are not incorrect things, they're actually very pure things, right? Being excited for church, absolutely, being in his presence, yes, amen, yes, the love of the Lord, yes. When you love the Lord, it's a mark of a good Christian, yes, amen. Love the Lord. It also when we just love the Lord and don't live for the Lord, when we just love the Lord, I think in my personal experience, it allows room for other things. It's kind of like saying, I love a TV show. And the Lord gave me this example when I was I was in my secret place, which I it blew me out of the water. But if I love a TV show, I'll talk about it. Anytime someone brings up the name of this TV show, I could talk about it for hours. I could, I could debrief every episode. I'm obsessed, like love, right? And then it's like when a new season comes out. We're preparing for the new season, so excited. You have to make sure you sit and you watch every episode that comes out. Um, someone brings up the episode that week, you're talking about it nonstop, you're telling all of your friends about it, you're watching it, you're taking it in, you're researching to see if you miss any details. You are trying your hardest to just all you can think about is this show. But then when the season ends and you've watched it all, you don't really think about it anymore until the next season. The Lord kind of gave me that revelation of like it's kind of the same with like a an encounter with him, like a retreat. If you're going to a retreat, you're on fire for the Lord. You had a fresh encounter, you were able to see him face to face. You were on fire for the Lord, you're talking about him nonstop, you're so excited for what he's gonna do. And maybe it's not the next week, but it could be the next month, could be two months after that. You're kind of you're not talking about him as much, and you're not really seeking him as much, and you're not really, he's not really at the forefront of your mind as much. And again, there's no shame in that, but I want you to realize a pattern because that's where I was. I had never gone on a retreat, but I would have moments, I would have highs and lows with the Lord, I would have highs, like months that I was just on fire. All I would do is seek his presence, all I would do is just look at him in his face, and I would just sit in his in my room and just pray and pray and pray and pray. I would have those moments and I would talk about him. And then I would have moments where I just was so busy with the things around me that it would distract me. It would distract me from looking at him and it would distract me from reading my word. And if I wasn't in my word, I felt kind of distant from him. If I wasn't praying every day, I felt kind of distant from him. And that's what love of loving the Lord can look like without the other piece of living for him. When we love the Lord, we kind of start to let little things into our lives. When we love the Lord and we let these little things into our lives, we get distracted. It will pull us away from the Lord if we are not careful. Someone could get sick, you can get sick, someone gets hurt, finances are an issue, you're moving, you had a breakup, your friend had a breakup, your friend is mad at you. Whatever, whatever that looks like, that distraction removes you from the living in harmony with Jesus, right? Living as one with him. And I've noticed over my own life, whenever I would have my highs, it would always be met with something that would take me to my low. And I would love the Lord, and even in my lows, I loved the Lord. It no longer looked like being with him every day, it looked like him being with him every five days, every six days, every two weeks. Um and I'm being I'm being honest and I'm being real. That's just what it looked like in my private time, in my public facing time, you would never know because I would still serve a church, I would still love people the same, I would do all of these things, but I was also still living in sin. When I loved the Lord, I didn't necessarily face correction the same way I do now. Now, when you when you're a Christian, the Lord will convict you if you have been a Christian for a bit. There is a word that we don't necessarily love, and it's conviction. There is no condemnation in Christ. You want you're not to feel shame and guilt for the things that you're facing, but conviction is when the Lord is alerting you hey, this is not something that I am aligning with in your life. I am not in this, I don't want to be in this, and you shouldn't be in this. The issue with just loving the Lord is we can hear that, and then we kind of maybe just tune it out. We're like, uh, maybe later, like, not really sure. That's that's what's calling me right now. I'm not really ready to give that up yet, right? Again, been there. And there was a lot of things in my life that I just kind of felt conviction on, but I wasn't facing because I was like, uh, I'm still young, I'm still whatever. Like, I don't think the Lord is really calling, like, it's not a sin. The Lord's not calling me to give up that. What I've learned very quickly is that it doesn't have to be a sin to be a distraction, it doesn't have to be downright evil to be pulling you away from the Lord. It could even be things that used to serve you and used to be in line with the Lord that no longer serve you. It could be a friendship or relationship that the Lord was in, but things have happened, things have shifted. You have grown up, you've grown apart, and the Lord is saying, This is no longer for you. It can look like that because it has looked like that for me. And it will hurt and it will suck, and you will cry, but the Lord will be right there, right? So loving the Lord is really just the bare minimum. Loving the Lord looks like going to church on Sunday, being excited, dressing up, listening to the sermon, and then forgetting what the sermon was about at lunch. Now, let's talk a little bit more about living for the Lord. So love living for the Lord automatically comes from loving the Lord. If you try and live for the Lord in your own strength, in your own might, you will fail every time. Because we cannot live for the Lord in our flesh. We have to live in the Lord in our spirit and live for the Lord in our spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is the one that helps us. If we're to do it in our flesh, our flesh is broken, it is bruised, it is weak, but our spirit is very much alive. So when we live for the Lord, we do so out of the revelation of our love for Him and His love for us. We do so out of the Holy Spirit, right? So you have to have the first one in order to have the second one. But when we live for Jesus, as we read scripture, as we study the lives of people that were devoted to Jesus and to the Lord, we notice a pattern of the Lord saying, Take up your cross and walk with me, right? Deny yourself, deny your flesh and walk with me. In Romans 12:1, it's it says that our our bodies would be a living sacrifice, and that is your form of worship. It's not singing two upbeat songs and a slow song on a Sunday. That is not your worship, it is a form of worship. But our worship to the Lord is our lives. What our lives look like. I have this verse, Isaiah 4 1. Um, I was reading it, I want to say a couple months ago, and the Lord gave me a revelation, and I wasn't really sure why, but I think it's for this. So Isaiah 4.1, it says, And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own food and we will wear our own apparel. Only let us to be called by your name to take away our reproach. In those times when the way that you are able to be recognized, um, to belong to someone, like to be with someone, right? You would wear certain clothes, certain colors, you would eat their foods um and to be known, to be recognized, right, with them. Now, in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel. Only let us call or be called by your name, that you may take away our reproach. And immediately what stuck out to me, they didn't want anything of what this person was giving them. They didn't want to be clothed, they didn't want to be taken care of, they didn't want to have to obey this person, right? Because when you belong to someone, you have to obey, you have to obey them and serve them. So they didn't necessarily want that. They just wanted to be able to call on their name so that they would be able to take away their reproach. Um, if you don't know, reproach is like the shame, the disapproval, right? So take away the shame, to take away the disapproval. And the Lord is saying, like, that's that's not how it works. You cannot be known to belong to me without wearing my clothing and eating of my food, without listening to my commandments. I wrote down here, do we still clothe ourselves with the world and eat forbidden fruit, only calling on this on his name as a band-aid? Or do we clothe ourselves and eat of Jesus and truly call him Lord? J the other story of the wedding banquet, the wedding feast. The Lord clothes us, he gives us wedding clothes, wedding garments, in order to enter into the wedding feast. But if we're not putting on the garments, the Lord says he's gonna cast us out where there is the gnashing of teeth. If we just stay in the phase of loving the Lord, yet we do not clothe ourselves, we do not associate ourselves with the Lord, there's an issue. There's a there's a misconnection, there's a there's we're out of alignment with him. Loving him looks like appreciation while living for him looks like reverence. Loving him looks like Jesus, thank you so much for what you did on that cross. I am eternally grateful, love you so much. Reverence, living, looks like holy, holy, holy are you. The lamb that was slain, that took away the sins of the earth. I come before you humbly and I bow before you as my king. Those are different. Loving Jesus can look like guidance, asking him for guidance. Lord, would you guide me in finding a new job? Would you guide me in opening up this business? Would you guide me in this new relationship I'm in? Would you guide me in life, really? Right? Would you just guide me while living for him looks like complete and utter control. Lord, close my business if this doesn't serve you, if this is not what I'm for. Lord, would you get me out of this relationship if this is not what you wanted? Don't let me start one without your hand in it. I will not move unless you follow. I will not move unless your presence follows me. Complete and utter surrender. Lord, strip me of anything that is not of you, that is not serving you. Remove it, because I don't want any part of it. And I will say, if you're not there yet, that's a okay, because I wasn't there for a while. But as we seek his face, as we sit in his presence and and we have fresh revelation of him, it starts to it starts to occur. There is a melting away of me and a filling of him and him and him. And it just becomes an inner desire of I want nothing else but him. How do I surrender more? And I know surrendering seems scary, it sounds scary, it looks scary, but when we realize that the Lord of everything, the Lord that created the heavens and the earth, the Lord that said, Peace be still to the sea and it was calmed, the Lord that is coming back, He has it covered. He is omniscient, He knows everything, He is the beginning and the end. He knows it all. In Philippians 4 6, it says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. The Lord knows what's going on in our lives. He wants permission to come in. Because if we figure it out in our own strength, the result is that it will fail. Because we are weak. We can only go so long in our own strength. But when we allow it to rest on his shoulders, when we bring it to him and say, Lord, would you have your way with this? I gave you permission, would you have your way? And he takes it. Things just start to flourish. And maybe it's not the thing that you gave him, because maybe that wasn't his plan. He's probably like, Oh, I have something so much better for you. Would we be okay with that? Would we be okay with the Lord's answer being no, not right now? Or no, it looks different than this. Would our desires not supersede his? And I know that's scary, especially like finance-wise. Like if the Lord is telling you to leave your job, or he's telling you to start a business, or he's telling you anything of that nature. I I want you to hold on to the fact that the Lord multiplies. Out of the little, out of the the little offering that we give, he multiplies that he just needed five loaves of bread and two fish, and he was able to feed 5,000. And he didn't just do that once, he did it twice. He is more than capable to handle your little offering, but it has to come as an offering because he's not gonna just come in and snatch it and be like, Alright, let's go, let's do this. It's an offering to him. Lord, would you take it? Complete and utter surrender. My life now looks completely different than it did a year and a half ago. And I couldn't be more grateful. It looks nothing like what I planned, and I could not be more grateful. He has grown me and shown me so much that all I can be is grateful. And I want you to experience that. I want you to be able to experience the Lord's goodness and kindness when we surrender. Because he cannot bless something that he is not in. He won't. I think that is all I have for today. But I would love to just pray over you before we go and to pray over your hearts. So, Heavenly Father, I just pray over whoever is on the other side of this video. I pray that as they watch this, that their hearts would burn for you, Lord, that you would ignite a flame in them so vibrant that others would be able to see it, Jesus. I pray, Lord, for a pruning, Lord. I pray for a desire in their hearts for them to seek you and for them to just surrender to you, Lord. But only out of the revelation of who you are, the revelation of your heart and your love, Lord. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would guide them, that you would use them, Lord. Like it says in Isaiah, who will go? What our heart cries be, would you send me? Lord, send me. Because that is all we ask, Lord. We love you, we thank you, we worship you. In your mighty name we pray. Amen. Well, thank you guys so much for joining. If you liked this episode, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe, share, all of the things. If you ever have anything that you want to talk about, any questions you have, please leave them in the comments or message me on Instagram or TikTok. It is Janelle and Jesus on both. Um, but I love you guys, but the Lord loves you so much more. I can't wait to see you guys in the next one. Bye.