Day 13 - Do I?

Day 13

Question:  Do I love Christ?

Read:

John 13:34-35

 34       “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

 35       “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

John 14:15      “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

3 Nephi 13:20-21, 24, 33

20        “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

 21       “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

24        “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

33        “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Ponder:

Do I keep all the commandments?  No.  If I did, I would be perfect, wouldn’t I?

So the real question is, am I trying to?  The answer to that is yes, I am trying to.  I have a long way to go on this one still.  But I am actively trying to do the things Christ wants of me.  And I am actively trying to keep all the commandments (sometimes I even deliberately try to drive the speed limit – sometimes).  Some days it’s easy to give to the beggar.  Some days it isn’t.

Sometimes you've just gotta have a little rain to make the flowers grow

Have I put another God before Christ?  In order to answer this question, I guess I have to determine what “Gods” I am worshiping.  What is the Mammon in my own life?  And there comes the rub – it’s easy to begin with a righteous purpose and then have pride take over and distort the purpose.  For example:  I can begin to lose weight to have a healthier body, right?  But in time there comes a danger that my weight loss will become more a matter of wanting a better looking body (i.e. pride).  Another example:  I can have a goal to save money as we have been counseled by our leaders to save and spend prudently.  In time, I can begin to hoard the money and not be willing to share with those in need, selfishly holding on to what “is mine,”  (i.e. pride) and forgetting how in debt I am to the Lord for everything.   It’s that old twist:  everything good can be twisted into something evil.  We need to carefully guard against that twist.  It’s a good question – one I need to ask myself every day:  have I put another God before Christ?  Do I really love Christ?