"Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, then go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. If you do this, you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow Me." Matthew 19:21 NCV

I remember reading one time; You will always be one step of obedience away from the next truth God wants you to learn about Him. I believe that. John 14:21 NLT, states the same truth of that statement. Jesus said; "Those who accept My commandments and obey them are the ones who love Me...And I will love them and reveal Myself to each of them." What an astonishing promise, Jesus Christ is promising to reveal Himself to His own! But this promise is conditional, we have to do something and that something is to know His commands which are found in the Scriptures and obey them.

Jesus told the rich young ruler from the title Scripture of today's post to go sell all he had, give it to the poor and come follow Him. Not many of us will ever hear that command from Jesus, but Jesus loved this young man and He put his finger right on the thing that was keeping him from following Jesus, namely his wealth.

I want to testify to the truth of John 14:21, it has happened in my life over and over, Jesus puts His finger on me and shows me what He wants me to do and in those times in which I am obedient I do indeed see Jesus in a way that I hadn't before and it is wonderful! Jesus commands are not hard, but if we are looking to our own strength to accomplish them then they are impossible. Jesus will enable us to do what He has commanded us to do, we take the first step of obedience and His power working within us accomplishes the command. So what are some of these things that we are commanded to do?

Some of the more well know ones are to tithe, to witness for Jesus Christ by talking to others about what Christ has done in our lives, and we share the gospel. Perhaps He is nudging us about getting up earlier so that we can begin our day with Him, once you commit to do that it truly becomes the joy of your heart, for those quiet moments spent with Him yield far more than you could ever realize!

And at other times He is the one speaking, when someone comes to your mind. I have learned that the hard way, He will place someone on my mind and I don't call or pray or write a card or even send a text or email, and I find out later that there was a reason He brought them to my mind, they were struggling or hurting or whatever, the point is when Christ brings someone to my mind now I always try to pray right then and then do the next thing, God knows who needs what, and He knows when they need it and that is when He speaks to us, I pray that I will never get over being in awe of Him and the way He is in the smallest details of our lives!!

God prompts us to fill a need in the church that we attend, or to volunteer our time or money to individual needs He makes us aware of. Since He is the one who gave us our talents and gifted us with a spiritual gift doesn't it stand to reason He knows where to place us in school, vocation, and in church? He wants to be involved and invited in to every aspect of our lives, nothing off limits to Him, I know it is beyond my understanding too, I'm just so grateful!!

I have saved the best for last the greatest commandment is; "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." And the second is this, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Matthew 22:38-39. That means of course that if we are obeying the Lord to love Him, we will do all that He tells us to do for all of it is for our good! And to love your neighbor means that we do no harm, no gossip, and we are to forgive no matter what, it is not an option. That becomes easier when we stop to think about all the sin that Christ forgave us in our own lives.

To know Christ is to love Christ, to love Christ is to obey Christ.