Someone asked me this weekend which faith makes a better person — and the question followed me home.

As believers, we're loved unconditionally by grace we haven't earned. So here's the honest tension underneath it: if I obey God because He loved me first, am I really in love with Him? Or has grace just made me passive?

Then I looked at the order Jesus actually uses. "If you love me, obey my commandments." Love first. Obedience second. And in the very next breath, He promises the Holy Spirit — the One who makes that obedience possible. He doesn't just ask us to live it. He moves in to help us live it.

Love is the root. Obedience is the fruit. The Spirit is the One who grows it.

What if obedience is not about the outcome, but about trusting God no matter what happens?  Today's devotion explores the quiet strength of committing to God regardless of the consequences and the legacy of faith that follows.

If you ever had a child, you know how they can often question anything you ask of them.  At some point, you chime in with that age old response, "Because I said so!"  In our walk of faith, we often come to a point where we find ourselves very much like a child, but our questions are far more complex and have far greater impact in our life.  Today's devotion tells us from experience, we need to follow through on those things God requests of us whether we understand them or not ...