To be REALLY honest, we should be willing to follow Jesus COMPLETELY with our lives and obey His commandments simply because He loved us enough to die on the cross for our sins. The writer of this hymn tells it quite well;
There will never be a sweeter story,
Story of the Saviour’s love divine
Love that brought him from the realms of Glory,
Just to save a sinful soul like mine.
Isn’t the love of Jesus something wonderful,
Wonderful,Wonderful !
O isn’t the love of Jesus something wonderful
Wonderful it is to me.
Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Notice it says “WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS!”… God didn’t wait until we were absolutely perfect to send Jesus Christ to die for us. NO…He sent His Son to die for us when we NEVER deserved it, which is good because we NEVER COULD deserve it! THAT ALONE should make us want to serve Him, love Him, and obey Him EVERY SINGLE DAY OF OUR LIVES!!
However, since it seems like a lot of people need something more to persuade them to obey God and do what is right in their daily walk, there ARE more reasons to obey and follow Him.
Look at Psalm 125, and notice what the last two verses say, “Do good, O LORD, to those who are good And to those who are upright in their hearts. But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, The LORD will lead them away with the doers of iniquity…” That first statement reminds me of another verse in the Psalms, Psalm 84:11, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
And the Bible reminds us over and over again that God will bless those who walk uprightly and follow Him, but those who think their way is better and those who would rather follow the world – the outcome for them is quite different.
When Joshua led the nation of Israel into the promised land, one thing he told them was, “…choose for yourselves today whom you will serve….but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15). He knew that serving God, no matter what it “cost”, is WAY WAY better than serving other gods or serving our flesh.
You CANNOT serve both God and the world. You DAILY make a choice about whom you will obey and follow after. And the results of what we do EVERY DAY will impact our lives for YEARS and YEARS to come.
If we needed another reason to follow God besides the fact that He sent His ONLY Son to die for us – REMEMBER, “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”