Last night at youth we were talking about worship and service and the necessity for those to flow out of obedience first. You can do seemingly good things while disobeying God. Or when you show up to worship on a given sunday, wednesday, thursday whatever but outside of that are living a life of disobedience. God does not look kindly on that. We are living lukewarm and he hates that.

So why do we struggle with disobedience. Cause we don't trust Him. We do it our way cause we've forgotten that our God is worthy of our trust. Along with that we don't have the faith to trust him cause we don't really love Him. If we did we would obey. Obedience comes from our love for Him. We desire to please Him, worship Him, and bring Jesus glory with our lives. Why don't we love Him because we've forgotten or don't really understand His goodness in that He loved us before we ever knew the need. before anything else He loved us and He showed that love in the cross. So ultimately where do we struggle? with the concept of the cross and how huge that is! So...

Reflect on the cross today and every day and let a life of gratitude flow out of that love leading to you loving Him back, stepping out in faith and trusting Him, obeying as He calls and commands, and worshipping him with your life!

What a hard lesson - this truth was spoken into my life and I want to share/challenge/encourage you all with it!