By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5: 2-3

I don’t drive as much as I used to from day to day, but there are plenty of reasons for guardrails and speed limits and concerns about distracted driving today, but many people appear to disregard most of those at least at time, right? How many times have you witnessed someone weaving in and out of traffic or on their phone in traffic?

If you’ve experienced a broken trust, a broken relationship, a broken life due to bad choices or if you’ve been the victim of someone else’s choices, you understand the phrase I remember a pastor using again and again. “When God says don’t, He means don’t hurt yourself.”

Some see the commandments of God as restrictive, but pursuing a life that honors God really helps us avoid some of the pain of life and that is why John tells us that when we love God, we obey his commandments.

God gives us great freedom to experience life to the full and that kind of life is best lived when we avoid the things that knock us off the road and bring pain to our lives. Jeremiah communicated these words on God’s behalf to His people: 

‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you’

Jeremiah 7:23

“His commandments are not burdensome”, but they are in place so “that it may be well with you” – God has the best in mind for us.