Free to love Him

Father, I desire. These are the words of Jesus in John 17:24. He goes on to tell us that His desire is for us to be with Him and that we would behold His glory! This amazing statement comes at the end His prayer just prior to being betrayed by Judas. Right before Jesus is taken into custody, right before He is interrogated, mocked, beaten and crucified; His thoughts are on us being with Him. The Lord of all creation is about to face the cruelest suffering and all authority is at His disposal yet He meekly submits in order to secure the love of the very ones who kill Him.

 We know that God never changes, if that was His desire at that moment, it is His desire now, and it was His desire in the very beginning; when He warned the man not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We can behold His glory, but we cannot take of His glory and call it ours; not then and not now. To eat of something you are taking it into yourself and it becomes a part of you, it nourishes you, sustains you and makes you grow; unless it is poison, then it will kill you.

Being able to freely eat is the crux of this command.  God did not erect a fence around the tree, nor did He post a security guard, He even allowed His enemy to lurk in the tree that carried the deadly fruit.  God does not change, look at Jesus, he had a thief holding the money bag during His earthly ministry and yet there is no record of a rebuke from Jesus toward Judas.  We still have no fences guarding our behavior; if we want to do something He lets us.  All things are permissible but not all things are profitable.

You are free, but don't use your freedom as an opportunity to disobey God!  It led to death then...It leads to death now.  His love is the power to keep you.  As weak as you think you are, God is greater than your weakness, and His desire is you. 

He created you, He died for you, and He is coming back....for YOU!