April 17 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

Devotional

As King in Zion, our adorable Lord Jesus delights to reign over a loving and an obedient people. Thus he makes our obedience to his commands a test of our love to his person—"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20), was the last charge he gave his disciples.

Now it is this keeping of his commandments, this observance of what he enjoins, that glorifies him in his saints. Coming to him in our ignorance glorifies him as Prophet. Coming to him with our guilt glorifies him as Priest. And walking obediently to his precepts glorifies him as King. It puts the crown on the head of his sovereignty. It recognizes the spiritual nature of his kingdom. And it upholds the purity, majesty, and authority of his laws.

Therefore, it becomes the solemn and imperative duty of every believer to search the will and testament of his dying, risen, and exalted Lord in order to ascertain all that he has enjoined upon his obedience in the way of precept and command. For how can he be a good and an obedient subject if he does not understand the laws of Christ's kingdom? Then—when the precept is clearly revealed and the command is distinctly made known—immediate, self-denying, and cheerful obedience is to follow as that path which—while it insures the sweetest peace to the soul—brings the highest glory to Christ.

Let yours be an obedient walk, dear reader! Let your obedience be the fruit of faith and the dictate of love. Do not permit any reserve in your obedience. Let it be full, honest, and complete. Search the New Testament Scriptures and examine closely your own walk. Ascertain specifically where your obedience to Christ is lacking. Be upright, honest, and sincere in your inquiry. Let your fervent prayer be:

"Lord, what will you have me do? Am I slighting any precept of your Word? Am I disobeying any command? Am I not taking up any cross? Am I cherishing any desire to hold back my neck from your yoke, or to withdraw my shoulder from your burden, or to mark out a smoother path than the one you have chosen and directed me walk in? Am I engaged in any secret making of excuses for disobedience, any temporizing, any carnal feeling, any worldly motive, any fear of man, any shrinking from consequences?

"Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. You are precious to my soul, for you have borne my sins, endured my curse, carried my cross; and in return you only ask—as an evidence of how much I owe and how much I love—that I should keep your commandments and follow your example. Now, Lord, please take my poor heart and let it be yours, yours wholly, and yours forever. Let your sweet love constrain me to run in the way of your commandments, for this I will do as you enlarge my heart and enable me."

Then the precious fruits of obedience will follow, even as the bud expands into the blossom, and the blossom ripens into the fruit. There will be a growth, a delightful expansion of the life of God in the soul; and with the increase of the divine life, there will be an increase of all the precious "fruits of the Spirit."

See that your Redeemer is glorified in your obedience so that, for the happiness of your soul and for the honor of Christ, you "stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God" (Col. 4:12).

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the Potter; I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will
while I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
as in thy presence humbly I bow.

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power—all power—surely is thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

(Adelaide A. Pollard, 1902)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.