Everywhere I Go: Learning to See JesusSample

Do You Love Me? If I could ask every person reading this book "Do you love God?", I would be surprised if anyone said no. I believe everyone would say, "Yes, I love God. I certainly do." But there is a test of sorts that tells us how much we really do love God - and that test is quite simple. It has nothing to do with church attendance, or a daily quiet time, or singing praise songs. It has everything to do with obedience. "If you love me," Jesus said, "you will keep my commandments." Obedience is God's "love test." And Jesus goes even further. He says not only will we obey His commands, but also, we will not find them burdensome. We will not moan and groan about being obedient to Him - we'll do it joyfully. Gladly. There is probably no area of life where this is more easily demonstrated than the area of stewardship. We are commanded to return a portion of what is God's (called the tithe in the Old Testament) to His storehouse, which is the church or the body of Christ. In the Old Testament, a percentage was allocated for the titheﾗ10 percent. But the New Testament teaches grace giving - in other words, as God has blessed you, give. Give joyfully, liberally and generously. But we are commanded to give. Don't be confused. The amount we give is not the measure of our love for God. The way we give is indicative of how much we love Him. If His command to give is not burdensome to us, we can be confident in our love for Him.