Compelling Love

What is truth, how do we find it, and how do we live it? When we find Jesus, we find the way, the truth, and the life God has always intended for us to live. I bought my wife an American Greetings birthday card recently that read, “The same God who spread billions of stars across the sky and sprinkled infinite grains of sand by the sea created just one you. You are God’s wonderful, unique creation. May He bless you and give you the desires of your  heart.” God has uniquely created each of us, and calls all who have ears to hear according to His purpose. Paul gives this wonderful assurance: Romans 8(28): ”And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

The Lord promises to direct the paths of those who wholeheartedly trust in Him:
Proverbs 3 (NKJV)
⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Faith gives us the victory that overcomes the world:
1 John 5 (NKJV) ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

As the song by Ira D. Sankey declares:
Faith is the victory! Faith is the victory!
Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world.

Jesus promises eternal and abundant life to those who believe in Him:

John 3:16 (NKJV)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 14:6 (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 10:10 (NKJV)
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Living the truth means knowing God’s Word and walking in it.

Psalm 119:11 (NKJV)
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.

Isaiah 30:21 (NKJV)
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.

John 13 (NKJV)
¹⁶ Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Abiding in Jesus and His love, we will bear much fruit.
John 15 (NKJV)
¹ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

Love and Joy Perfected
⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
¹¹ “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. ¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

After His atoning death and resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven, and then sent the Holy Spirit who lives in us and guides us into all truth.
John 16 (NKJV)
¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Jesus gives eternal life to those who are united with Him. He prays in John 17 that we would be one with Him and in the Father, and receive His glory.

John 17 (NKJV)Jesus Prays for Himself
¹ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples
⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. ⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰ And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

Jesus Prays for All Believers
²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.