Doors Knobs, Keys, and Roots

  I begin this post with a (sort of) thrown together title. 

In a hope that I'd draw your attention. 

Although what I write in this post has most likely been said before,

what I am writing is something that I am learning and discovering.

I sit on a hard, rough bench. The room damp and dark.

I see the door that is keeping me in to this room.

The door is marred with dents and scratches. I rattle the door knob. Only to find it is locked. 

I rest my ear on the door trying to hear what is on the other side. 

I look through the key hole on the door knob.

I can only see a faint, but bright light. 

I pound my fists on the door, hoping it will open. 

  

This is how I feel sometimes when looking for an answer....

...We all have flaws.

I often try hard to overcome, and correct my own faults. I struggle to let go of selfishness, impatience, pride and anger. To unlock the answer to overcoming. They can all be stitched into a web.

A web that I wage war with.

Some days it’s easy to win the battles.Patience, humbleness, joy overshadow my struggles.

But some days it takes so much work (and battling) to get my anger and other faults controlled.

So, I ask myself over and over how to win the battle...

The desire to keep fighting my sin is there. (Sometimes more than other times)

However sometimes I miss the real reason that I am trying to fight my sin.

One thing that God emphasizes many times in His word is love.

I might want to be a better person. But love should always go hand and hand--

---or rather be the center of my goals. Love for God. Love for my neighbor.

It might seem a simple concept. (It might even be easy to ignore.) But, it might be hard to follow through.

Always loving. Kind. Never hating. Not boastful, not selfish.

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:34-40

Did you skip that verse? You should read it.

I never truly took this verse to heart until a few years ago as our pastor preached on it. All the commands of the bible are connected to loving God and loving our neighbor. If we love God, we’re not going to have any other gods, we’re not going to have idols. We’ll keep the Sabbath. We’ll honor our parents. We will not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet.  

That’s an amazing concept. Love is the root to obedience. 

It’s the key.

 Your thoughts?