Obedience is not optional but it is not our focus- it is the fruit of abiding.Sweating is not optional. When your body heats up it will sweat. I do not try to sweat to cool myself off. It happens.If we love Him we will obey Him. In Ephesians Paul says, "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."This love, which produces obedience, is a glorious gift of God. Paul knew that only the power of Christ could make a heart love- thus he prayed. When we walk by the Spirit, Christ floods our hearts, gives us love for Him and others and produces obedience in us. We most often "do" this process backwards. We try to obey to prove that we love to get God to like us and then hope He will fill us. Yikes!

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