God Lives In Us John 14:23

If a man loves Me, he will keep My Words and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.



Here is another conditional statement from our Lord Himself. Jesus says, "If a man loves Me, he will keep My Words." This is a self-test for you and me. There are a lot of people who claim to love the Lord. Jesus knows who loves Him better than you and I ever will. He wants you and me to know where we stand with Him and so He gives us this self-test so that we will be able to know for ourselves how much we love Him.

The test of our love for the Lord is our obedience to His Word. This is as simple a test as He could give to us. Paul tells us, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Faith is the test of our relationship with the Lord. It is a test that we can gauge for ourselves. As you and I determine that we will keep God's Word and make it a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path and hide His Word in our heart that we might not sin against Him, Jesus promises us that His Father will see that and He will love us and come to us and make His abode with us.

The first thing that we have to remember is, God loves us anyway. My faithfulness to His Word does not have anything to do with His love for me. However, my love for Him and my determination to keep His Word in my decisions on a daily basis has everything to do with His coming to live in my heart and in my life.

Jesus promises us that as we live for Him, He and His Heavenly Father will come to live in us and be there with us and they will be there for us. As we surrender our hearts to the Lord, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts and in our lives and He will lead and guide us through this life and bring us to the life that is to come in heaven.