Day 7: Dwelling in the shelter
“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love” (John 15:9-10).
Our Father, long ago when You called a people to Yourself, You promised them honor, distinction, blessings, and Your protective presence, if they would fully obey the Lord [their] God and carefully follow all His commands (Deuteronomy 28:1).
Understanding the shelter and safety of Your commands, David was later to write, I will never forget your precepts, for by them You have preserved my life (Psalm 119:93). He appealed to You for help on the basis of Your promise: May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts (Psalm 119:173).
David again affirmed this foundational truth when he wrote: But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey his precepts (Psalm 103:17-18).
This was the very message the Lord Jesus reiterated to His followers when He instructed, Now remain in My love. If you keep my commands, You will remain in My love... (John 15:9-10). To Your people today, the Lord Jesus was proclaiming the age-old message—the promise of honor, distinction, blessings, and God's protective presence that comes with full obedience.
In You, Lord, we find refuge, and safety, shelter, and security. We see the numerous assurances in Psalm 91 from the beginning and continuing through every line: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust...” (Psalm 91:1-2).
And we see the contrast in the parable the Lord Jesus told us of The Lost (Prodigal) Son (Luke 15:11-32), who left his father's love, shelter and security, and became vulnerable, exposed, ensnared, trapped, destitute and desperate. But You show us the love of a Father who runs to meet him and welcome him home.
O Lord, we cannot even begin to understand Your amazing love. It is staggering to think of the Savior's assurance, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you" (John 15:9). Yet, we are prone to wander*—prone to trade the riches of Your glorious inheritance for prodigal squalor.
Help us, O God, to remain in You—to remain in Your love. Bind our wandering hearts to You.* Help us to walk in obedience to Your commands.
The apostle John reminds us once again of the charge, In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome (1John 5:3). And in keeping of them, says David, there is great reward (Psalm 19:11 - KJV).
*Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing ~ Robert Robinson ~ 1758
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