Will You Have Confidence in the Judgement?
Imagine being beside yourself with joy when you come to stand before Jesus Christ, knowing that you have pleased Him by spending your life getting to know Him better and loving others with Him. That can be your experience! Add to that an even greater joy that comes from knowing that you’ve been instrumental in discipling others, resulting in their ultimate happiness and joy in that day. Even as I write this, my heart overflows, thinking about the joy and satisfaction that will be yours because of God’s grace to you. As you daily pray in faith, believing that God will let you know Him and will empower you to live with Jesus as He’s called you to do, you may have great assurance and confidence that He will fill you with His freedom, power, and joy to do so for His glory, both now and forever. Does this excite you? I hope so. It’s a fourth reason why you should rethink about living to love with Jesus.
Reason #4: Living to Love is your confidence in the Judgment.
Listen to and meditate on the witness of the apostle John about the benefit of living to love through Jesus Christ. “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this [abiding in love and God abiding in us], love is perfected [has completed its course] with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:16-17). In what way are we in this world as Jesus was in this world? We trust and rest in our Father’s love and love others with His help, just as Jesus trusted and rested in His Father’s love and then loved with His help.
We should all know that if we ever love, it is proof that we have been and are loved by God. This is the reason we can approach the judgment seat with great confidence and tremendous joy. Knowing God and loving with Jesus, however, shouldn’t be mere occasional experiences but a harmonious, consistent lifestyle. Waking daily with this purpose and intention is the essence of our calling and the fruit of God’s transforming work in our lives. He is “conforming us to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). We don’t want to approach Judgment Day relying on just a few good days of loving others well as evidence of God’s grace to and through us. I’m afraid many will come to that moment and hear Jesus’ soul-crushing pronouncement, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matt. 7:23). They lived deluded lives, intentionally satisfying their own desires instead of pursuing God and His pleasure, and that is the proof that they neither belonged to God nor were known by Him. Jesus’ warning about the consequences of calling Him Lord but not doing the will of His Father is crucial as we approach that day.
You can prepare now for your appointment with Jesus by rethinking what you live for and purposing to live to love with Jesus. This is not only a possibility; it is God’s purpose for you! I know you will be prepared if you intentionally live to know God and love with Jesus each day. Securing this confidence is the fourth reason you should rethink your purpose for living and give yourself to God with the goal of loving as Jesus loves. Here’s a review of the first four reasons to live to love with Jesus.
- God is love.
- Jesus commanded us to love like He has loved us.
- Love is the proof that we know God.
- Living to love gives us confidence in the Day of Judgment.
If you haven’t already visited livetolovewithjesus.com and taken the Live to Love with Jesus prayer challenge, I hope you will. The Live to Love prayer helps you take these reasons we are considering this year from the information stage to application. Jesus taught His disciples that they will be blessed if they put into practice what they heard Him teach. The same is true for us. We are His disciples, and we want the world to know that we know Him and are following Him by living to love with Him. If you haven’t joined the Live to Love adventure yet, why not begin today? The Live to Love book (print, ebook, audiobook) and the Live to Love Adventure video series are available for free on the website. If you are interested in being a part of a Live to Love zoom group, let us know by sending an email expressing your interest. You also can start your own Live to Love discipleship group in your home, at church, or in a park or coffee shop. The Live to Love powerpoints for each chapter of the book are available on the website. You can also download the Live to Love app on your phone or tablet which has all of the resources for making disciples who live to love with Jesus available at your fingertips.