March Like Jesus
… By Doing God’s Will – Part I

Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:15-20

Key Verse: Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who calls out to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter”.

Jesus continues His “marching orders” to His followers with a warning about saying all the right things but not putting words into action. Jesus goes on to say that our good works do not make up for continual disobedience to the law of God.

Remember what sums up all the law and the prophets: the Golden Rule. Jesus said that some who say “Lord we prophesied in your name and cast out demons, as well as many other miracles”, yet God will turn them away because they did not love as Jesus teaches.

Our Key Verse makes it very clear that it is only those that do the will of God that enter Heaven. Have you known or heard of a person who does great things for God, yet had hidden unrepented sins in their life? The Bible reminds us:

God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and His ways. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)

Think about what Jesus is saying here. A person can be doing miracles, but if they are not living a holy life, then they will not enter Heaven. This does not mean that if we do something that does not fit the holy life, that we can’t get into Heaven. If that were true none of us would make it. This is referring to people who continue to live in sin, knowingly disobeying the will of God, without repentance. Aren’t you glad we have an Advocate sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us? (1 John 2:1).

Our Key Verse for today calls us to take a good look at our lives, what others see and what others cannot see, to make sure we are doing God’s will. The Apostle Peter wrote:

For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? (1 Peter 4:17)

We, as God’s children, must carefully judge our own behavior. Christ-followers are filled with the Spirit which leads us into all truth. Are you staying in step with the Spirit? (Galatians 5:16-26).

May God help us all to have “judgement day honesty”, working out our salvation with fear and trembling! (Philippians 2:12)

Father, please examine me and see if there are any sinful ways in me. May I daily do Your will with sincerity and love. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.